Well, most of you know by now that I climbed Mt St Helen’s last weekend. In short, it was a tough hike but with amazing views. It was a 5 mile hike (one-way) with a 4800′ elevation gain to a altitude of 8600′. The hike involved lots of scrambling over large boulders and the last mile before getting to the crater rim was an endurance testing shuffle up slopes of volcanic ash. For some reason, my legs started cramping 3/4 the way up and a 1/2 hour rest didn’t do much to alleviate the pain. Eventually I just decided to push on despite the cramps and finally made it to the top.
Needless to say, I could barely walk the next day (twisting my left ankle several times on the way down didn’t help). However, it was all well worth the effort. The views were fantastic – we had a 360 degree panorama of the mountains/volcanoes around us with Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt Hood (all volcanoes in the Northwest) clearly visible from the top. Looking down into the crater, we could see the new dome which is slowly building itself and we could also see and hear the occasional rock slides off the sides of the new dome. (Go here to see an annotated photo taken from the crater rim).
Being on a volcano, ash was everywhere. It was on my sandwich, in my mouth, in my hair and, worst of all, on my camera lens. Hence, if you look at my St Helens photoset, you’ll see the images getting darker and darker as the hike progressed and my photos on the crater rim were especially dark. Here’s a photo (courtesy of David W) taken of my ash-covered legs and shoes near the end of the hike. Left sock pulled down a little for more dramatic effect 
In other news, I’m looking forward to my first weekend in a long time of not doing anything (or at least first weekend of not having anything planned). But knowing me, I probably won’t be able to sit still.
Posted by kelxia 
