Mount Saint Helens

A quick hiatus from Morocco Tails, this post is all about Mount Saint Helens.

July 27th.

The alarm clock went off at 0445. A gentle tap of rain echoed in the tent. I decided it to give it another 20 minutes, but like anytime in a tent, couldn't fall back asleep. Got up, the light rain blew through and fired up with Coleman stove. We made breakfast, broke down camp, geared up and headed out. The temperature was in the low 40's, the path through the trees started in several feet of remaining snow from winter. After an hour 1/2 we broke out of the trees and immediately warmed up. Shedding a few layers, we were blessed with overcast clouds to climb the mountain in. The temperatures stayed cool, nice breeze and the snow melted off ridges and the canyons were full of snow.

It took 4 hours until we got above 7,000 feet where the clouds broke and we could see the summit. The pumas rock was everywhere and it was like walking up a steep hill in pea-gravel.

Around the 5 hour mark, we reached the summit. The cloud level was just below 8000 feet, so we couldn't see much. Rainer would pop out every now and then, but it was still nice. I took a panorama pictures as shown above, but my Pentax W20 seems to have a glitch where it meters 1/8th of the picture at a different light, causing weird things. Bummer...I guess I will have to climb the mountain again :).

The most rewarding part of the trip down was the Glissade. We easily got a good 1 1/2 miles in over several chutes. 1/2 way down, I noticed on my Garmin 301 writ st GPS we were going way off course, so we cut back into the rocks to rejoin the trail.

The way down has a lot of bouldering. Big chunk lava rock that gives the legs a huge workout. Like squatting 300 reps of your body wait. Good thing there are glissade shoots.

After we left the snow and entered into the trees, I found the best sight ever. A pit toilet. Yeah!!!.

Great trip, will have to make the trek up Mount Saint Helens again next year. Next time I will have to include a trek into the Ape Caves. Bring a good light and warm clothes, it was cold down there.