Mount St. Helens – 8328′

On my way back to Utah the stars aligned again and I found a lone, relinquished permit for Mount St. Helens on July 27th. With all the permits going to an online system I was not aware how quickly the 110 permits/day sold out. The permits for July opened up on June 1st and when I looked in mid-June, they were all gone. On a whim one morning when the cats chose to wake me up at 3:30am, I logged on and found two spots open for July 27th so I snagged one of them. Only some days later did I realize that that was the exact day that Mom and Dad climbed the mountain in 2010!

I must say a very noteworthy feat as they were both in their mid-70’s when they summited in 2010 … In fact, so noteworthy that I must publicly degree that they are going to hold onto the family age group award for peak bagging – after this climb there is NO WAY that I will repeat this in 15+ years! Maybe someone else in the family will step up???

This was certainly not my most favorite climb … once you got done with the first 2 pleasant, forested miles and made your way up to the scree, ash and boulder fields, it was not a fun endeavor. In fact, almost the whole time I was moving uphill I was wondering to myself how in the world Mom and Dad managed to climb this beast!

The evening before I stayed in the town of Woodland which was about an hour+ from the parking lot at Climber’s Bivouac trailhead. After a very filling meal of Chinese food with my friend Mary Jane and her daughter, Jan, it was off to sleep for a 2:30am wake up call.

Not sure why I look surprised/scared in this photo – maybe because of the enormous pile of food in front of me? Don’t worry, I took half of it back to the hotel!

I left the trailhead at about 4:15am and was treated to an amazing sunrise over Mount Adams. Maybe if I am lucky Joel will consider including it in his 2023 calendar?

From the parking lot I took the Ptarmigan Trail for 2 miles to the junction with the Monitor Ridge Trail which was then a little over 3 agonizing miles to the summit.
Once you leave timberline the trail is marked with large poles – quite easy to follow!
Starting up the first boulder field to Monitor Ridge.
A little hard to see but there is Mt. Hood on the horizon – I could also see Mt. Jefferson off to the right.
Monitor Ridge is aptly named as there are several monitors on the ridge!

Once you pass through the boulder fields, you come upon what is fondly called the “Beach.” A very long, annoying slog up scree/volcanic ash where you take one step forward and slide two steps back. It seemed to just go on and on and on!

Lots of rockfall coming off this slope.
To get to the true summit (highest point in the distance) you had to cross a few small snowfields – it was about 1/2 mile away.
Lava dome which periodically had little puffs of steam coming out of it. Mt. Rainier in the distance.
Footprints all over the cornice at the edge of the crater – just like the people that approach bison at Yellowstone and become finalists in the Darwin Awards!
Summit shot with Mt. Adams in the background. Tried to replicate the shot in Mom and Dad’s photos but not in the cards that day.

On the way down I decided to be nice to my knees and glissade down for as long as I could. A couple other guys didn’t glissade but were running/boot skiing. Certainly the way to go! As I carried my ice axe and snow shell pants, I might as well use them.

My glissade path on the left of the photo – lots of fun! The guy in the photo was sort of jogging/boot skiing down – didn’t look like as much fun as I had.
This plant looks very similar to a variety of spirea that we have in our yard.
Although I didn’t take a lot of flower photos, there was some very pretty pink heather that caught my eye on the way down.
In the rearview mirror – never saw the mountain as I drove to the trailhead in the dark!

When I got back to the parking lot it was 91degrees so I quickly loaded the car, fired up the air conditioner and started driving back to Utah. I got as far as a small town past Hood River, OR called Wasco – not much there except a convenience store/deli. Another fast food dinner to celebrate the summit. And no, I did not drink all the beer – it went to Joel as a trip souvenir!

Odd sign in the hotel – reminded me of Law & Order episodes where a runaway/fugitive rents a cheap hotel room, chops off all his/her hair and then dyes it a new color!

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