Climbing Mount Saint Helens July 08

I climbed Mount Saint Helens!

This was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever had. I went along with my dear friends on their family vacation. When we checked the website for the mountain, it mentioned "hiking". We expected to do a day hike which would take about 8-10 hours. Well, it is definitely mountain "climbing" but it was a blast!

We got to the trailhead bright and early at about 7am. It was a beautiful sunny day. The Climber's Bivouac trail that we hoped to go on was still closed due to this year's heavy snowfall. So, we had to take the trail that went straight up. There is still a lot of ash. You might notice that my shoes are the same color as the trail! By the end, we were covered from head to toe.

We began by taking a nice walk through the woods for a couple of hours. Then we got to the boulders. We climbed up, and up, and up, and up. You get the idea. Just when we thought we were near the top, we crested a ridge and realized we had a looong way still to go. We met some wonderful people and ended up spending the rest of the day with them.

Once you get to the snow line, the trail ends and people take many different routes to the summit. This was the scary part that was very steep. After going for 6 hours, there was NO WAY we were turning back. We were determined to see that crater! After climbing the "snow steps" and getting through the scree/shale type terrain (where you actually sank back half as far as you went for every step), we made it to the summit. Wow, what a beautiful view. We were on the edge of the volcano crater. There are still puffs of steam coming out! We could see Spirit Lake and Mount Rainier in the distance. It was definitely worth the effort. It took us 8 hours to get to the top. Knowing we still had to go all the way back down and not wanting to run out of daylight, we did not spend much too time admiring the view.

On the way down, everybody brings a garbage bag to sit on in order to save time sliding down the snowy parts. We were too scared to go back down the steep snow steps. We hiked across the ridge for a while but could not find anyplace less steep and knew we had to get on a garbage bag and go over a cliff. The snow was not exactly soft any more. There were many grooves from previous sliders which were just barely wide enough for our hips and about 8 inches deep. You get flying sooo fast down the mountain that you are completely out of control. One time I was thrown out of the groove, tumbling head over heels, screaming like crazy. As I was upside down, I looked over at my friend (I had caught up with her) who was still in the groove looking at me with shock in her eyes wondering how I was ever going to stop. Eventually Newton's laws catch up with you, thank goodness. We saved three hours by doing this crazy "sledding" and skiing on our tennishoes. (It is funny to think back to the trip up the mountain when we were deciding which route to go on so our feet wouldn't get wet!) We made it down the mountain in five hours, for a total time of 13 hours round trip. I highly recommend this experience!!! But, if you go, make sure you bring a large garbage bag, plenty of food and water, and hiking gloves which turned out to be the best thing ever. And of course, bring a camera because you will not want to forget a moment of your time on that mountain.