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Climbing Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens is an amazing National Park. The volcano blew in 1980 and experts thought it would be a complete dead zone for 400 years. Within 3 years, life started reappearing in the desolation. Science has rarely had an opportunity to study a spot like this up close. So it’s understandable that they don’t allow very many people on the mountain! Nobody can go inside the crater or along the north side of it where most of the devastation was. You are allowed to climb up the south side, but you need a permit and during most of the year (except the dead of winter) only 100 people are allowed to climb per day.

Last year, AndyD and StehanieW climbed it with their family, but since you have to pick your climbing day months in advance, they got unlucky and climbed in complete fog. They wanted to do it again to see the sights so on Feb 1, Andy snagged some climbing passes.

The climbing group was to include myself, Tim, Chelsea, Andy and Stephanie. Tyla really wanted to come along, but her knees don’t do well on long hikes so she reluctantly abstained. A couple days before we were to head out, Andy and Stephanie had to back out for personal reasons. Tim, Chelsea and I decided to carry on so on Saturday afternoon we headed around to the south side of the mountain. The plan was to stay in a campground the night before so that we could get an early start. Our campground was in Cougar, WA which is about 20 minutes from the trailhead. There are also free campsites (if you have the climbing pass) right at the trailhead but those are first come first serve.

We arrived at the trailhead on Sunday morning around 7:30am and by 8am we were on the trail. This trailhead is called Climber’s Bivouac. At 3900 feet, it’s the highest point that you can drive on Mt. St. Helens. If you’ve driven to the mountain before, you most likely drove to the Johnston Ridge Visitor’s Center that is north of the mountain. There’s also one other smaller Visitor’s Center on the east side. Neither are as high as this trailhead.

The route begins with a 2 mile stroll through the woods. It goes up about 1000 feet. This part flew by on the way up as we were fresh and the trail was simple. At 2 miles, you abruptly come to the end of the tree line and reach a sign saying that you must have one of the climbing passes to carry on past that location. No one is allowed above 4900’ on the mountain without a pass. We had broken out of the clouds a during the hike through the woods and as we continued, we were in blue clear sky with a blanket of clouds below. We could see Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood sticking proudly out of the cloud layer. Quite a sight!

At this point, the trail completely changes character and head up an old lava flow (from an eruption before the 1980 eruption.) This stretch lasts about 1.5 miles and it’s tough. The rocks will rip up your hands so gloves are recommended. There are many points where you have to climb up on all fours. Climbing over these huge boulders is tough to begin with, but to make it even worse, there’s no specific path to follow. There are route markers every couple hundred yards and you just have to make your way to the next one. Sometimes you can see a good route to take and sometimes we seemed to end up taking the hardest possible route.

The lava flow boulders end eventually and now it’s on to the ash! The last mile is a slog up an ash field. For every step up, you slide have a step back. And by this point, you’re really getting up there so the oxygen is a lot thinner than you are used to. This is the point where the wind can also be whipping the ash around so general advice is to make sure you can cover every part of your skin (long sleeves, long pants, and a bandana for your face.) Thankfully the wind was calm so we stuck with gaiters to keep ash out of our shoes and our hiking poles to give us extra stability.

We made it to the top of the mountain (8366 feet above sea level) in 4 hours and 40 minutes. We did get passed by about a dozen people, but looking through other trip reports, this is a respectable amount of time. We said from the beginning that our goal was the top, not the amount of time it took so we took plenty of breaks for photos and rests.

You can walk all the way up to the crater rim and wow, what a view! It’s so unlike anything I’ve ever seen before (and I’ve been to the visitor’s center many times.) The sheer magnitude of it is readily apparent. We stayed up there for about 30 minutes taking in the views of Rainier, Adams and Hood in the distance and watching steam escape from vents in the lava dome in the center of the crater. I hastily snapped a bunch of photos for a panorama. There are a few problems from where it was stitched together and I should have taken more photos, but I had to stand uncomfortably close to the rim and the wind was blowing pretty hard trying to push me in.

As we began our descent, the ash field was pretty simple. You could keep a good pace with a controlled slide on the heels of your feet, and before no time, we were back at the lava fields. Ugh. Going down was harder than going up. We were only about half way through when I could tell my legs were shot. Your calves take a beating going up and the thighs take the brunt going down.

After what seemed like ages, we made it to the tree line. The smooth trail was glorious, but even the gentle downhill slope was super painful on the thighs and knees. Tim and Chelsea definitely set the pace for this part of the hike as I lagged behind. At one point near the end, I had stopped to get something out of my pack and thought I was standing next to a pile of poo. I realized it was my own B.O. The trees seemed to last twice as long as they did on the way up, but we made it to the parking lot, thoroughly beaten and completely covered in ash and sweat.

One big decision on a hike like this is how much water to take. If you’ve ever run out before (as Tim and I have), you want to err on the side of bringing too much. But every liter weighs 2.25 pounds and you don’t want to be carrying any more weight than necessary. I took a 3 liter Camelbak full of water and a 2 liter one full of Gatorade. The Gatorade ran out right at the crater rim and I finished the hike with 1/4 liter left. Perfect!

It took us 3 hours and 20 minutes to get down which means we were hiking for 8 hours plus 30 minutes at the top. Even though we were so tired, the lure of our beds was strong. We went back to the campground, took showers, and packed up the campsite while we were cooking food on the fire. After eating a delicious meal (anything would have tasted good at that point!) we hopped in the truck and headed home.

It was a long day and I don’t know that any of us are jumping to do it again soon, but we’re all thrilled that we did it!

I owe a special thanks to my wonderful wife who was supportive of me going even though she was staying behind. Thank you Tyla! I love you!

Chelsea and I both carried our little cameras up which were easily accessible during the hike. TIm and I both carried our dSLRs to the top, but his was much easier to get to than mine. We took quite a few photos but it’s really hard to show the scale of the hike in these photos! Nonetheless, I’ve included some of my favorites in this post and put more in the photos gallery. You can also view a big panorama from the top of the mountain. Drag your mouse around and zoom in and out to get the full effect. Also notice the thumbnails on the right side of the panorama. If you click on them the page will reorient and zoom in to points that I’ve marked on the photo.

 

 

 

 

 


View the full panorama

Three Day British Columbia Ride

It started as an idea to ride up my motorcycle to Whistler for lunch. Then it expanded to an overnight trip. And eventually it meant that FrankL, DougW and I headed on a three day ride through British Columbia.

We left Woodinville around 9:30 on Saturday morning and headed north on I-5. We crossed the border on Hwy 15, or rather, we tried. It took about 45 minutes of sitting in stop and go traffic to get across. We stopped for lunch right across the border at the Derby Bar and Grill which turned out to be an off track betting restaurant. We skipped the horse stuff and stuck to the food, which hopefully didn’t involve horses.

The ride through Vancouver was quite unpleasant. Most of 1 was torn up for construction and it was pretty clear that most of the construction crew didn’t ride motorcycles because it was ROUGH.

That stretch wasn’t too long though and eventually we popped out on the Sea to Sky Highway heading up to Whistler. That gorgeous rode was a real treat on the motorcycle and all too quickly we were in Whistler.

We walked around the village for a while, had a few beers at the Irish pub and then ate dinner at the brew house. We stayed at the Adara Hotel right in the village. It was nice to try a new hotel there, but I’m not itching to go back. It was VERY loud until late in the night. All the hotels in the village are loud, but this one seemed a bit excessive.

On Saturday morning on the way out of town, we parked on the side of the road to take a picture next to the big Inuksuk (one of the statues you probably saw during the Olympics.) Doug’s daughters (Frank’s granddaughters) gave them some stuffed bears to carry along on the ride and they were supposed to take photos with them. When we got back to our bikes, there was a policewoman writing us parking tickets! Frank pleaded our case by holding up the bear and saying, “I’m sorry. My granddaughter gave me this to take pictures with while we’re gone!” While she tried to keep up a tough exterior, you could see it melted her heart. After a lecture about parking, she voided the ticket and let us go. Frank later named the bear in honor of her: Canadian Bacon.

The ride from Whistler to Kamloops via Lytton was one of the most amazing roads I’ve ever ridden. It was windy, twisty, hilly, and very unpopulated. The only catch was that there was a lot of wildlife to watch out for. We stopped for some kind of quail that wouldn’t fly away, mountain goats, big horned sheep, one cow, and a deer that came a little too close for my liking.

By the time we crossed over the mountains, it was HOT. Temps were right around 100, and when that’s blowing in your face at 60mph it feels like you’re in a convection oven. We stopped often to hydrate, ate some ice cream from Dairy Queen, and soaked our shirts in sinks to keep us cool. We stayed in downtown Kamloops and wandered around to find some dinner.

Monday was the last day of our trip, but it was also the longest day. The first two days were around 210 miles but this one was 280 miles. It was all almost all interstate (interprovince?) so it went quickly. We crossed the border in Sumas which had a shorter wait, but still took us about 20 minutes in the hot sun.

By the time we got home, we were all sore, but we had big smiles on our face from the ride. We all had our little hiccups along the 710 miles whether it was a check engine light (me), dripping gas (Doug) or new rattles (Frank), but our bikes held up just fine and we all got home safely. We’ll have these great memories for a long time! A couple photos are posted below and more are in the photo gallery. I rode with a camera around my neck so many of the photos are snapped hastily without really looking at the shot. When we stopped I would sometimes take out the big camera for some nicer shots. Enjoy!

 

P.S. I think I figured out my check engine light without a trip to the dealer so that made me happy. It had something to do with the Speedohealer that I installed, but the error is cleared and hasn’t come back yet.

Camp Muir

I’ll tell you up front that this is probably going to be a long post, but I want to record every minute of this trip. When I moved to Seattle, I thought, “I should climb Rainier.” I still remember the first day that the clouds parted and I saw Rainier on the horizon. I quickly realized that this thing is enormous. Ever since then, Mt. Rainier has filled my sunny days with taunting.

Camp Muir is located at just over 10,000 feet on the south side of Mt. Rainier. The parking lot at Paradise is 6,000 feet and the summit is 14,400 feet. Muir is halfway up and is on the path for most of the major routes to the summit. Most people who are headed for the summit will get up to Camp Muir on Day 1 around noon and will try to fall asleep as early in the evening as possible. They’ll get up very very early on Day 2, leave some gear at Camp Muir, reach the summit, come back to Muir for their gear and descend all the way to Paradise. Mike and I set out to ski down from Camp Muir back in June of 2008 but got turned around by a blizzard and my poor conditioning.

I’m still interested in getting to the summit, but before I invest the time and money in that trip, I wanted to do a day hike to Muir and back to see what it felt like. But every year, the summer would disappear without a trip to Muir. This year, I put a date on the calendar, found a group to hike with, and started some training.

We had planned to go last Thursday, but as the day approached, it became clear that the weather would be much better on Wednesday. It turns out that Wednesday was absolutely perfect. Visibility was so good that we could easily see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and even Mt. Hood which is 100 miles away! It was about 50 degrees with 20mph at the top which was perfect for a strenuous hike. On Thursday the temps were right around the freezing mark with rain and 40mph winds. We chose well.

AndyD and AndyM made the trip with me. Tim had planned to come along but had to bow out due to work. I met the two Andy’s in Renton at 6am and we headed for Paradise. We hit the trail at 9am. The first 2.3 miles up the Skyline Trail to Pebble Creek went very quickly. The views were extraordinary and the path is very well travelled. After crossing Pebble Creek, we were on the Muir snowfield and our ascent slowed dramatically. Trekking poles are a must. I can’t imagine doing it without them.

The snowfield does have some bits that are steeper, but it’s generally a relentless 2.2 mile slog up 2700 vertical feet of snow. The total vertical and length aren’t that terrible, but doing it at altitude is a whole different ballgame. By the time we got to about 9000 feet I was really feeling the effects. My muscles weren’t getting tired but my feet wouldn’t always go where I told them to go and I felt short of breath. At 10,000 feet you have 30% less oxygen than you do at sea level! Two hiking tricks really helped me out. The first is pressure breathing where you purse your lips together and forcefully expel all the CO2 from your lungs. The second was the rest step where you take one step forward, lock out that knee and rest on your skeleton. Then repeat with the other foot. Finding a good pace with this method was what kept me going. The Andy’s were quite a bit faster than me. I don’t know how much faster they would have made it to the top if they hadn’t waited for me (although they said it wouldn’t have been much difference.)

We reached Camp Muir in four hours and ten minutes which is a good/average time for summit groups. The difference is that I had a 25 pound pack and not a 40-50 pound pack like the summit groups. We kept pace with most of the other people that left around the same time as us and even left a few in our dust.

We spent about 45 minutes at the top enjoying the view, relaxing, putting on various bits of dry clothing, and eating. Then it was time for the descent. We had all brought trash bags along so we punched our legs through the bags and made hilarious looking shorts out of them. There are long glissade chutes down the slopes and we made good use of them. The first person would be sort of slow because they were re-breaking trail. The second was a bit faster and the third person would fly almost uncontrollably down the hill. It was a fun reward for such a tough hike. Once we got off the snowfield we hoofed it down to Paradise very quickly.

The sights and sounds were incredible: huge waterfalls poured over cliffs, the stark contrast of the wildflowers below to the snow and rock above, marmots running through the fields, chatting with climbers who had summitted that morning, and the thunderous sound of rock falls higher up the mountain (one of which we spotted.) Any one of those things would have been enough for a normal hike, but they all combined to give me an experience I’ll never forget.

One of my biggest concerns before the trip was what to take. I got the REI Flash 50 backpack for this trip, but what should I put in it? I ended up with two Camelbak bladders. The 3L one contained water and the 2L one was filled with the powdered Gatorade mix. I wore shorts and a dry hiking shirt. In the bag I carried an extra shirt, fleece, pants, gaiters, Under Armor shirt and pants, emergency first aid kit, emergency blanket, flint, a knife, two pairs of extra socks, sunscreen, a camera, jelly beans, 3 Power Bars, an apple, carrots, Tyla’s homemade trail mix and two sandwiches. If I had it to do over again, I would have brought less food. The jelly beans were really helpful. I kept them in my pocket and munched them regularly on the way up. I also went through all my liquid, taking the last sip as we got to the car. If/when I do this again, I want to look into waterproof boots (or at least I’ll carry a second set of shoes) and a bandana for some extra sun protection. Also, there are “bathrooms” at Muir but no toilet paper. Bring a bit along or bring a roll and leave it there. If you have to poo along the trail you are required by law to bag it and take it with you. In the cold weather and altitude, it would take hundreds of years to decompose.

I’d also say that you cannot leave too early in the day. Get up as early as you can and get on the trail early. We left at 9am but by the time we were coming down, it was getting really slushy and wet. It would have been even harder to climb up in those conditions.

Two things surprised me on the trip. First, there were bees on the whole way up the snow! They never really caused any problems but there was a constant buzzing as they followed us the whole way up. The second was how much of this hike was mental. On other tough hikes, I’d go until I couldn’t physically take another step. On this trip, I really had to focus on not letting the lack of oxygen get to me, not thinking about how far I had left to go, and on finding a good pace that I could sustain.

I owe a huge thanks to Andy and Andy for making this trip a reality! This has been on my list for a very long time (I mentioned it in the 2007 year in review) and it’s a major accomplishment for me!

You can view all the photos in the photo gallery.