Mt St Helens Climb

 We choose the last Saturday in July to get our climbing permits for Mt St Helens back in February when the permits became available. We were very fortunate, the cay was sunny & clear, but not hot. We started at Camper's Bivouac on the south side of Mt St Helens. The hike to the summit is 9 miles round trip with 4,600 ft of elevation gain.

The first 2.25 miles ascend 1,000 ft through the forest, a nice easy grade.

The next part of the hike, 1.25 miles, is up Monitor Ridge climbing over boulders for 2,600 ft additional gain in elevation.

The way is marked with large posts. In this lower portion of the boulders we could not see the top of Mt St Helens.

 It was great to take short rest breaks and look at the views, to the south, we could see Mt Hood & Mt Jefferson in Oregon.

 And to the east, Mt Adams.

 Looking down, we could see we had gained a lot of altitude.

 We were happy to see that the end of the boulder fields were in sight, and what appeared to be the summit rim of Mt St Helens

 The last portion up to the rim is less than a mile and additional gain of 1000 ft through small pumice rocks and ash. Here the rim is clearly in sight.

Near the top, looking back down the ridge line.













Reaching the rim is so amazing, to finally see into the crater, the new dome, Spirit Lake and Mt Rainier to the north. Worth the long climb!

Panorama view of the south rim and crater, Mt Rainier and Mt Adams in the distance.

Panorama to the south and the higher portion of the rim.

 We hiked along the rim to the higher portion. Looking back along the rim, it is very narrow. We needed to be careful not to step out on to the snow cornices and slide into the crater.
Mt Adams in the distance.

 Looking into the crater, there were several active steam vents bringing up hot salt water from deep below the surface of the earth. (It is nice having our brother the geologist along)

 Permanent glaciers have formed in the crater, here are some crevices in one of the glaciers.

All four of us on top of Mt St Helens.

We were a little faster on the descent, but not through the boulder fields. We did see some pretty wildflowers along the way.