July 30th 2004 - Evan and Erin climb the south slope of Mount St. Helens
[Which is two months before ol' St. Helens woke up from an eighteen year slumber and started rumbling and burping ash again. As of 3 October the mountain is still rumbling a little and geologists are saying something bigger than just a steam and ash release are expected soon. No worries here - the scientists are concerned for visitors within about five miles of the volcano, and Corvallis is about 125 miles away from the mountain as the crow flies.]

Fast facts:

Mount St. Helens: SW Washington State; 9677ft before its eruption in 1980, now the rim peaks at 8365ft. The crater floor is 2000ft below the rim.

For this fun adventure we woke at 4:55am despite the uncanny double failure of both our digital watches, started climbing with our group of about ten others at 7:15am, reached the crater rim at 12:00pm, finished our decent at 4:45pm. This climb was an all-day event. We climbed as part of an outing organized by NW Discoveries, which we hooked up with through Corvallis Parks and Recreation.

Our climb, like most I imagine, was up the mountain's south slope, and started at an elevation of ~3865ft, ending at the rim at 8365ft. (a swift 4500ft change) The total round-trip time was 9.5 hours, with an hour break for lunch and enjoying the view at the top. Speaking of view - we could easily enjoy inspired views of Mt. Adams nearby, Mt. Hood and we think Mt. Jefferson to the south and cloud-floating Mt. Rainer (14k foot) to the north. All of these mountains seem to keep their snowy glaciers year-round.

The hiking distance was about 4.5 miles each way. The first two miles are mild and scenic- amid the forest below the tree-line - and gain but only about 500ft in elevation. That leaves ~2.5 miles of rock climbing and talus field sludging in the sun to gain 4000ft. High-school SOH-CAH-TOA tells me that the hike above the tree-line averaged 17-degrees. It felt like 30.

(Evan wishes to acknowledge that all along Erin was completely right about the usefulness of trekking poles. Especially considering the leg pain of climbing such a continuous slope of talus at a tough-to-catch-one's-breath elevation. I think our prep work of walking around Corvallis and one trip up Mary's Peak didn't make a fitness dent.)

Live Volcano Camera provided by the US Forest Service.

Topological map of St Helens.

Hiking map of St Helens.

A great series of pages about the weeks leading up to the catastrophic eruption in 1980.