We Did It

Summited Mt St Helens is what.

Where we, from left to right are, my brother-in-law Steve, my brother-in-law Steve's brother-in-law Steve, Patty's brother Doug, my niece Alison, Patty's nephew Steve, my nephew Kenneth, and Patty. 

Proudly holding our sign at the summit, just prior to popping the champagne (yes we had champagne, we are civilized you know, although it was twist top bottles).

It was not an easy hike.

This is the mountain, at the top center there are two dips, we hiked to the right most dip, you can see (once suitably bigafied) a thin grey line to that dip. That was the trail.

It was brutal.

The first two miles were along a nice easy path through the forest.

And then ...

Boulders. Lava boulders. And snow. And then ash (like walking on a beach, only up).

Three miles of this stuff.

Note the white poles, those were the trail markers. 

Did I mention boulders? (A Mountain, Mt Rainer?, nicely framed.)

Notice the yellow work gloves. They were so I didn't cut my hands when scrambling over those lava boulders.

Also note I'm wearing shorts and no jacket. It was 108° F in the valley that day. And it was hot on the trail. If not for a constant breeze, and the snow (more on that below) it would have been brutal as the last three miles were exposed above the trees. No shade whatsoever.

One final word about my attire. At the top there was a group of hikers, six women and one guy, and one of the women asked if I "was and adventurer". I guess I am. And as we were approaching the tree line on our way down, one of the volunteers who hike the mountain looking to help folks along the way asked if I was a tour leader.

I was the last of our group to make it to the top. 

Leading from behind ...

We had plenty of wonderful views. That's Mt Hood in the distance.

And the view from the rim, looking in to the volcano:

Across the way is the Johnston Ridge Observatory, where this adventure started four years ago.

Up on the rim we enjoyed the champagne and lunch.

And then we headed back down. Like this:

Sliding down on the snow. It's called "glissading" and usually requires thicker pants and an ice ax, as one is sliding down on the top layer of ice. But since it was so hot the ice had melted. And it helped keep us cool. Sharp eyed readers will notice I now have long pants on, through the miracle of zippers.

Here is a link to a glissading video taken by the youngest of the Steve's: click me. 

Patty and I at the top. Note the thin grey line of ash on the left. That is the same line visible in the second image above.

Now while I can't say that I totally enjoyed this hike, as some parts were just brutal, I can say that I did enjoy parts. Being at the summit. Sliding down. And arriving back at my car. :-) And I'm glad I did it.

When we got back to the 'resort' were we had spent the prior night, we met up with a group of women who had been on the trail behind us through the wooded part. They were on a guided hike. And they told us that they turned around just one mile from the summit because the tour leader said there wasn't enough time to summit. They were understandable angry, as there was plenty of time. All that work for no payoff. I too would have been pissed.

A spectacular end to our Washington adventure.

🏔  🏔  🏔  🏔  🏔

Thanks to Steve, Steve, Steve, Doug, Patty, Kenneth, and Alison who provided images for this post. And who were great hiking companions.