INCH Hike: Mt. St. Helens

1314. Mt. St. Helens (09/30/23)

Hikers (0):
Distance: 9 miles
Rating: 4 difficulty, 9 beauty
Park info: Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument near Cougar

Write-up by Steve -- Pictures by Qi, Jarda, Kendra and Steve

This hike was originally scheduled by PINCH. It was posted two months early so people had plenty of time to commit. At its peak, there were 22 people signed up, which is pretty impressive for a "distant" hike to a relatively tame peak.

A few weeks before the hike, long after I'd bought a plane ticket and booked a hotel, someone noticed it might snow. Two weeks out it looked like there might be a foot of snow at the summit. People quickly started dropping. Half of those people probably own more winter gear than Edmund Hillary, but a hysteria took over and eventually PINCH scrapped the hike entirely.

I wasn't worried about a foot of snow. In fact, I'll take it over volcanic screen any day. Since I was already committed, I posted it on Occasional in case anyone still wanted to do it. Got a few takers who, like me, were committed to going to Washington either way. As it turned out, the weather was fantastic and the snow was great for hiking.

Where's the volcano?

I had planned to start early, but failed in that effort. Got to the parking lot at 8:30am--the original start time--and was on the trail at 8:35am. The parking lot was already full, but there was plenty of parking along the road.

The first section of trail goes gently through the forest. Knocked that section out quickly.

Looking back down the trail at Mt. Hood early in the hike

Upon reaching the tree line, it's time for the boulder field. The "alltrails" write-ups of this section declare it has a very long boulder field. Luckily, it's not a tedious boulder field like you find in the Sierra or the Rockies, where you have to step from one oddly-angled boulder to another. In fact, with a few exceptions, there is a mostly-boulder-free route. Only at the very start was there a need to use one's hands to get over some rocks.

First part of "boulder field"

First shot of snowy summit in far distance

In the vicinity of the GPS monitor station (after which "Monitor Ridge" is named), there was about an inch or two of patchy snow, and it increased in depth and coverage from there. At the station, it was a bit windy so I broke out a second jacket. About 100ft of elevation later, I sat down and put on crampons to take advantage of the nice snow.

The snowy section begins

Unbeknownst to me, Hong and Qi had started an hour earlier, so were already on the summit as I was coming up. I spotted Qi coming down. He didn't recognize me at first, probably because I was wearing a balaclava. . .and pants.

Hong at the rim flanked by Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams

The true summit is over there

The Mt. St. Helens smoldering dome

We certainly weren't the only ones up there

Ran into Hong and Qi right at noon. . .

Soon after, I was on the summit and enjoyed the views. Looked over where the true summit was--about a third of a mile away over two hills, a valley, and another hill--all covered with pristine snow on sizeable cornices. . .and decided not to do it.

Headed back down, soon running into Jarda and Kendra coming up. Everyone had made it and agreed it was the perfect day.

. . .and then they ran into Jarda and Kendra eleven minutes later

Looking down at the monitor station from Monitor Ridge

And now it's just rock the whole way back to the forest

This mountain goat doesn't understand how camouflage works

Kendra and Jarda caught up to me just before the bottom of the boulder field. We'd ultimately meet back up again in Battle Ground for dinner (and live music) before setting off on our ways. Good times!