Mt. St Helen's

The weekend of the big hike had finally arrived, and I was mostly ready for it. Truth be told, I had a bit of a meltdown a few weeks prior, convinced I was nowhere near ready or capable to do the hike. Thomas asked me if I could borrow an ice ax from someone, and it put me over the edge. Ice ax? Um, no.. Mountain still covered in snow, ice ax to glissade down, and by the way, we need some micro spikes- all words spoken that terrified the hell out of me and had me twisted up in anxiety. Those aforementioned words meant 'technical hike' to me- and that was neither something I wanted to do, or planned on doing. After a very long conversation, and oodles of patience dispensed, it was decided that we would keep the date and hope for the best. After all, he said, it's going to be so much easier to do the hike in snow than it will be in late summer heat and ash. And wouldn't you know that the summer route and the only campground actually opened 3 weeks early, just days after the meltdown?

at Monitor Ridge, halfway point- Mt Adams in background

Summer came early this year, arriving promptly on the 4th of July. We were heading to the mountain on the 5th, to camp the night before the hike. We decided to do a little prefunk for our trip and grilled up some amazing prime filets and opened a super yummy 05 Rafanelli Cab. As we drove on the small windy roads to Campers Biouvac, where we'd be camping, the mountain began to come into view. And let me tell you- it's big and covered in snow. Queue that anxiety again. It was an early night at camp, since we had a crazy early departure time planned.

Waking around 4:30, we ate, broke down camp and packed up the car, and set off on the trail at 5:50 am. The first two miles of the trail is mostly through the forest, and the light breaking through the trees was just lovely. We were the only people on the trail at that time, so it was peaceful and quiet. Once you break through the treeline, you're immediately hiking on snow. A quick stop to put on the micro-spikes and a change into a short sleeve shirt and it was back on the trail. The best thing about this hike? You can amazing view pay-off pretty soon into the hike; once we were out of the trees, Mt Hood sparkled in the early morning light. I could have been happy to sit there, not going any further and just enjoy.

The second push of the hike is alternately through some steep pitches of snow and along the boulders of Monitor Ridge. A little bit further up, and Mt. Adams came into focus. The sun was shining high, and we were so very thankful to be doing this hike with such amazing weather. The hike itself is really only 4.5 miles each way, and an elevation gain of 5600 ft. However, you're gaining nearly all of that elevation in the last 2.5 miles- the payment for that leisurely early morning stroll through the forest.

At the crater

The last section of the hike is mostly all on ash and sand. It's hard work; like walking on a beach that angled at about 90 degrees. You took one step forward and sank back a little, so it was constant work. And you can see the top, it looks so close and yet you keep going and going and going... It took us 5.5 hours to get to the top-knowing what I know now, I could probably shave an hour or so off that time, but I am a slower climber. Arriving at the top, with the wind whipping and Mt Rainier greeting us- there are few words. The photos don't do it justice; the stratification of the crater, shining hues of pink; the pockets of steam billowing from deep inside; the 360 degree views, of which now we could Rainier, Adams, Hood and Jefferson, thanks to the gorgeous day. We had lunch, chatted with other hikers and began our trek down after about 1/2 hour.

a typical chute for glissading

So, the getting down part. Since the mountain is still mostly under snow, the easiest and fastest way down is to glissade- which is basically sledding down on your behind. Enter the ice ax, which you will need to stop your slide. Thomas braved the first chute down from 8367 feet- there was NO way I was going to do this from such a steep height- I was riddled with nerves! About 1,000 down, I made my first attempt to glissade. It was super fun, pretty fast and equally terrifying. We ended up glissading about 2/3 of the way down, which saved our knees and tons of time. 


The entire hike took us about 10 hours. It was hard, and I was beat by the end, but I'm so incredibly glad I did it. To stand at the rim of an active volcano and marvel at this bit of nature, with picturesque views cocooning me during the endeavor? Well, there's really nothing like it- it was magic. 

* the entire album is located here*