Mount St. Helens 8/8/2014

[tekewin]

On vacation last week in Portland, OR. Took one day to drive up and climb Mount St. Helens. Here are some of my favorite photos...

Full report here: http://ironhiker.blogspot.com/2014/08/m ... elens.html


The sign says "Boom!"


Mount Hood from the Ptarmigan Trail


Looking back down Monitor Ridge, the path of lava flow on the south side


Seismic station


Lava dome, Spirit Lake, Mount Rainier in the background


Mount Adams to the east


Traversing the rim toward the summit


Summit


Close up of the 300' lava dome, Crater Glacier, rock and ice fall visible (it was also audible)

[zippetydude]

Thanks for sharing the trip with us! The shots are excellent, some amazing views there. I guess it was something of a grind, as you gained about 1750' per mile for two of those miles going up, which is a 33% grade! Ugh.

BTW, I've been to Kilauea (active shield volcano) and Lassen (dormant stratovolcano), but never up the side of an active stratovolcano. It may sound silly, but I would have been a little nervous the whole time...did you hear any rumbles? Was there a nasty sulfur smell?

I was surprised that they actually put a little "Boom!" on the official sign since 57 people died in the eruption. I'm all for play most of the time, but it just struck me as a little light hearted given the loss of life.

z

[tekewin]

Z,

No sulfur, no rumbles, just the steam venting from the lava dome. I guessed, maybe incorrectly, that the USFS has gotten better at predicting eruptions and would close the park if they expected one. They do have a monitoring station set up and closed it from 2004-2006 while it was going through smaller eruptions. Nothing is 100%.

I was also surprised by the "Boom!" and wondered if it was graffiti. I should have taken a closer look at it. I noticed there was not a "Boom!" on the other side of the sign as I was leaving.

I would love to climb Lassen, which I think had the last major eruption before St. Helens. Volcanos! Eric posted his Rainier climb here a month or two ago. Rainier is freaky big.

[Sally]

Great TR! What a view! It's amazing that a mountain can lose 1,200' elevation with just one event.

[HistoricalExplorer]

I've never been to St Helen's but I've thought about the mass that blew out of Mt Mazama when Crater Lake was formed. The original peak elevation there has been estimated around 12,000 feet. Now it's closer to 8,000 feet. It's difficult to imagine 4,000 feet of mountain mostly disappearing into the air with some collapsing into the earth. Volcanoes and mountains, in general, have a way of making people feel small.

[towbradley]

Wow, I'm really late on this try. Really nice writing and pic's were amazing. Thanks for sharing.