Day 31 - 8/15/2004 - The mountain awaits

What a day.  As I write this, Hunter and I are sitting down to a well-deserved meal (with large helpings of pie at the end).  I will try to finish this write-up before the laptop battery and my personal battery give out.

We got up early this morning, packed a few remaining items, and set off for the climb on Mt. Saint Helens.  We knew we were in for a workout, but I really did not know what to expect.  As we drove up to the parking area, we encountered heavy clouds and fog.  I was hoping it was just some low-level valley fog, but we couldn't tell.  We reached the trailhead and started our hike about 6:40 am from the Climbers Bivouac.  Only 4600 ft of elevation gain to go!

The first portion of the hike is through a cool, green pine forest, as the trail climbs gently toward the base of the mountain.  This is the easy portion -  we knew it would get steep fast.

After about 30 minutes, the blue sky broke out and we were able to see some of the neighboring peaks as we walked above the clouds.  Mt. Adams was apparent to the east, and Mt. Hood was visible to the south.  40 minutes into the hike, we emerged from the pine trees and reached the base of the actual climb.  My guess is that the start of the climbing portion is still about 3800 ft below the summit.  We still had not seen the true summit, due to the clouds and intermediary peaks that we would be climbing.  We started up the rock scrambles that would gradually get steeper.

The trail follows the ridge of a "lahar" (channel that lava, mud, etc uses when the mountain erupts), and rises steeply over boulders, small rocks, and loose ash.  We were now walking on "new" ground - earth that was inside the mountain prior to May 18th, 1980.  I don't remember much about the mountain prior to 1980, but it's impressive the walk through the ejecta fields.

The trail follows the channels for a good distance, and then starts up through boulder fields.  For the next 2 hours we would climb up a boulder field to a small ridge, and only to face a new boulder field.  As our energy was waning, it got tougher - the boulder fields gave way to pure ash and small rocks.  Normally this would be easy, but given the steepness of the slope, we would slide back a step for every two we took.  Imagine walking up an 1800 ft sand dune!  Gradually we conquered the slope by hiking a short distance, talking a short break, and continuing.  The last 500 ft were the steepest and the most difficult.

When we finally reached the top, we realized it was worth every blister, every scrape and bruise, and every drop of sweat.  The expanse of the crater is about a mile across, with a huge lava dome building in the base.  Across the crater you can see Spirit Lake, and beyond that, Mt. Rainier dominates the skyline.  The cascades surround you, and you have a 360-degree panorama unfolded before you.  Looking down into the crater, you realize the power that must have been required to blow the top of the mountain off.  The original summit was 1300 ft higher than where we hiked!  It's hard to image a force that could have propelled skyward all of the VW-sized boulders we passed on the way up.  A cubic mile of earth is missing from the summit of the mountain!

After a short lunch and some pictures, it was time to start down.  All of the ash we had fought on the way up made for a fast descent.  We literally RAN down the slope, jumping into the deep ash and sliding as if we were on skis.  What took us an hour to climb, took 4 minutes to descend.  Gradually the ash intermingled with rock, and we slowed down.  As we descended, we reached more and more rock, until we encountered the boulder fields once again.  It was slow going here as we picked our way through the crevices and watched for hand holds.  We worked at this the rest of the way to the treeline, where we picked up the trail and hiked back to the car.  Total time of hike - 10 hours (5 up, and about 4 down, with an hour at the summit).

This will definitely be on my list of "re-dos" for the future.  However, I think I will hit the Stairmaster hard a few weeks prior.