climbing a real (not hair) mountain

Where to begin....

The first day I arrived in Mt. St. Helen's Shadow, it looked impossibly large and impossibly intimidating... some of the "scenic views" showed it from the other side of the valley, revealing almost the entire 8,300 feet (give or take a few) of the giant volcano. The top covered in strewn rock, ash, and heavy snow. I traveled up to the climber's bivouac where I spent the night in the shadow of the mountain and met a few of the others who would be climbing the next day. One of whom was another solo climber. We had both been planning that we were getting up around four to being our ascent. I had some serious doubts, though, as to the reality of climbing such a giant.

I awoke easily at four, having not adjusted to local time. Within 20 minutes, I was headed off down the trail with my pack and my headlamp. The light quickly made the headlamp unneccessary. I was first, but I knew that others were close behind and I intentionally let them catch up. I had the sense that I was in over my head. And was I right.

Fortunately, I got myself in with three other hikers - the solo guy who camped opposite me, and two others. Once above treeline (4700) the ascent was steep, and a combination of boulder-hopping and kicking in steps in the snow. Everyone else had Ice axes and/or crampons, but I was limited to my trekking poles (an absolute necessity). We summitted around 10:00, buffetted by 30 mph winds (the high speed recorded was 37) in 38 degree temperatures. But it was worth it... by 6000 ft we had gotten above the clouds to be treated to views of Mt. Hood, Adams, the sisters, and even a bit of Rainier, all with a blanket of clouds underneath us. The snow cornice was thick around the rim, so we had to traverse a bit in order to see into the crater. I scrambled up a ridge and perched there to look in for a while. The dome is rebuilding fast, a pickuptruck load every 2 seconds. Within a 100 years, it is estimated that the mountain will have rebuilt its entire height. Getting down from the ridge was a little tougher, in the process I kicked a couple rocks loose and watched them careen down the side of the mountain.... I slid/clawed my way back down to a safer spot and traversed back to our original arrival point. From there we glissaded down (my new favorite thing to do - sit on your butt and slide down the snow slopes!!!!) It froze my butt, and occassionally hurt a bit, but we decended 1500 feet in about 15 minutes... a far cry from the hour or two that it took to make it up that same distance.

All in all, we got back to camp around 2:00 - a 9 and a half hour round trip adventure. But I climbed my first mountain. Pictures to follow....