Mt. Saint Helens Climb

Sorry for the delay in posting this...

Earlier this year, my friend Adam and I decided to attempt the hike up Mt. Saint Helens. Our permit date was August 11th and up until a few days prior, my main concerns about the hike were the heat... let's just say that wasn't a problem.

We arrived at Climbers Bivouac on the night before around 6:30pm to camp at the trailhead. We woke up early, broke down camp and hit the trail at 6:00am. We made it through the first 2 miles of forested trail quickly and soon made it to the treeline. Once at the treeline, we took note of the clouds up on St. Helens completely obscuring our destination.

Although disappointed at the weather (and thus lack of views and photography), we were determined to reach the summit. We then head up....up... up through the boulder fields. Then the weather hit us.... first just misting and the wind slowly picking up. We were just able to make out wood poles that mark Monitor Ridge through the clouds. Each step of this section takes effort, as there is no "trail", as much as there is a choose-your-own-adventure scramble over and around large irregular boulders. Soon, I learned that my newly purchased trekking poles were my best friend on this hike, and I used them for balance, for pulling myself up large steps, and for catching myself when my footing failed me. They were also invaluable on the way down.

As we made our way up, the weather steadily grew colder, more windy, and the rain increased. Once through the boulders, we began the last section, which is mostly loose rock and rock dust. Each step uphill and you slide down a half step... and the trail seems to get steeper towards the top... not that we could really make out the top in the clouds and increasing rain and wind. We pressed on, determined to reach the rim... too cold to stop for any rest. We were soaking wet from head to toe, the winds were easily 30+ mph and gusting and the temperature was in the lower 40s. Once we reached the rim, we had a brief conversation about whether to attempt the summit, which is about 1/3 of a mile around the crater rim to the West. We decided that despite the conditions, we would give it a go. Besides, we made it that far... why not finish it? On the rim, the conditions were by far the worst I have ever hiked in. Rain was coming UP the side of the mountain, the winds were unbelievable, and I could not feel my fingers from the cold. Needless to say there were no views to be had. We quickly made it to the summit, touched the rock pile marking the top and headed back down.

The trip down was fairly uneventful. Trekking poles were used extensively in the boulder section to try and spare our knees some pain. We saw quite a few climbers heading up, and more deciding not to go for it due to the weather. We made it back to the trailhead at exactly noon (~3 hours to reach the top and 3 hours to get back down)... We spent little or no time spent resting due to the conditions and no time taking in the views (since there were none), so I would imagine that we would have taken about 8 hours round-trip otherwise.

We had a great adventure, despite the conditions, and look forward to trying again next summer (with hopefully better weather).

Here are the few pictures we took before the weather made us put away our cameras: