Conquered Mt St Helens!

This past Saturday, I set out to climb Mt St Helens. I'm happy to say that I made it to the very top and that I came back all in one piece with nothing more than sore muscles and tender knees. It took me about 10.5 hours to complete - we started at 6:30am and I arrived back at our campsite at 4:45pm.

The trail begins with a 2 mile hike through the trees. It was very much like the previous hikes that I've gone on with my hiking buddies - in fact, the terrain pretty flat so it actually seemed easier. Then a gradual ascent occured and we started to head upwards. Soon we reached the treeline - no more trees, just a huge mountain of rocks and ashes. The rocks were these big boulders that we had to climb over. There were areas where the rocks were resting on a pile of ash so we had to be careful of our footing because they could start to roll down the mountain if you weren't careful. I believe or at least was told, that the rocky section of this hike was another 2 miles. It took us about 3 hours to complete. This part of the hike was marked out by wooden poles so it felt like we were connecting the dots. I found it helpful to have those wooden posts there (not just becuase they marked the path..) because in my head, all I kept telling myself was - "just make it to the next pole... just to the next pole..." To get through the rocky section, you usually had to use your hands either to pull yourself up or to steady yourself as you found a foothold. The rocks are not smooth but have a bit of a porous texture - it reminds me of coral in the ocean. So as I'm pulling myself up or holding onto a rock for balance, my palms start to feel very raw. I notice that others who are passing us on the trail have wisely brought climbing gloves with them. I think that my group was a little bit unprepared.

When we finally reached the top of the rocks, we could see the summit. We could see people standing there at the top. They weren't moving any further up so we knew, that's our end point. The problem was... they were so small and in between was a pile of ashes. There was no turning back at this point. The last section was only a mile long but because it was on ashes, it was like hiking up a very tall sand dune. Afterwards, many of us said that it was like taking two steps forward, sliding one step back. This was by far the hardest part of the trail because it was so discouraging to put so much effort into each step knowing that you were only gaining half of the distance. Most of us were already exhausted from climbing through the rocks. For me, I believe that this last section was purely a mental challenge. I decided that during this last section I wanted to go at my own pace and therefore I left the majority of the group and made the journey alone. There were many times when I stopped and looked back and contemplated giving up but I kept telling myself, "you've gotten this far...ten more steps... just take ten more steps". I'm glad that I made it to the top. The view was something I probably will never get a chance to see again! I could see into the crater of the volcano and I had views of Mt Rainer, Mt Hood, Mt Adams and Mt Jefferson (I think those are all correct). It was so amazing!

I'm going to see if I can add the panaromic shot of the view at the top - I have to stitch the photos together first.

The hike down was pretty hard too - but the best part was glissading down one of the snow banks on the volcano. The downhill descent on the snow took about 2 minutes while the climb up took perhaps over an hour.

Would I do it again? I'm not sure however, after a week of recovery, I'm feeling fine and thinking I could probably tackle it again :)