Pre-eruption Mt. St. Helens

[BobBolton]

In fairness to us old-timers, I think pre-eruption Mt. St. Helens should be added to the lower-48 Ultras list. Here are its statistics -

Elevation: 9,677'
Saddle: 3,760'
Prominence: 5,917'

It was such a beautiful mountain!

Bob

[img]http://www.fototime.com/{0242FF69-361B-4EE8-B17B-CA4F7E8D5421}/picture.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/{097DEF78-5B00-46E1-8ACD-295BE11D9E93}/picture.JPG[/img]

[John Kirk]

Thanks for signing up Bob - nice pics! It's nice to have another member with such impressive stats. I have added Mount Saint Helens to the list (and check it off for you already), though I think it is fair to say one can still complete all of the ultras without it. Thus, on the Member completion profile page, a message displays that Mount Saint Helens has been climbed also under the count the member has of the current 57.

[RyanSchilling]

Thanks for sharing those pics, Bob. I believe I've commended you for your Helens page on SP before. You were providing excellent coverage when the mountain was hicc-upping earlier this year (or was it last year?).

Are you one of the fortunate ones who got to climb St. Helens before it erupted? It's interesting reading about routes that don't even exist anymore!

I was *totally* obsessed with the 'St. Helens' movie when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My mom had recorded it off of HBO or something, and I wore that tape out! That was almost certainly my very first mountain obsession, now that I think about it! :)

[BobBolton]

I think it is fair to say one can still complete all of the ultras without it.

That's indeed true John. But I think that for those of us lucky enough to have climbed pre-eruption St. Helens, we shouldn't be able to complete the list with only 57. That would leave out one of the other Ultras, which doesn't seem fair. Of course I won't mind if I'm lucky enough to be the first to complete all 58. :) My friend Duane Gilliland and I are working on that very goal, hoping to finish them in 2007.

Interesting website!

Bob

[BobBolton]

Hey Ryan, good to see you here too. Seems that I find you everywhere I go on the web!

Yes, I was lucky enough to climb St. Helens once before the eruption, in 1975. Speaking of routes that don't exist, we climbed the Forsyth Glacier and descended the Dog's Head, which had the most outrageous glissade I've ever enjoyed. The day we climbed it was cold and VERY windy, although clear and bright until we were on our way down. The upper part of the route was all covered with ice, so we used crampons for much of the climb. From where we hit the rim to the summit area was directly into the wind, and our heavy old 11mm gold line rope was suspended horizontally between is, and acted like a sail. It was almost harder walking along the nearly flat summit plateau than climbing the cone! On our way back to the descent route, at one point my crampons caught an ice nubbin and the wind sent me sprawling on my tummy. It was so strong that I couldn't stop even though it was only slightly downhill. I finally did a self arrest to get stopped. Two of our party carried downhill skis to the summit, and I can't even imagine how tough that would have been. One of those two was probably the best climber I've ever known personally (although I've met Ed Viesturs), and he was also a great skier. Since the upper mountain was all ice, they side-slipped down to the softer snow, resting at the top of the Dog's Head. When I got down there my strong friend said his leg muscles were numb from the jarring caused by side-slipping on those ice nubbins. I went on down the glissade track (so deep that I couldn't reach the top while sitting in it), then at the bottom looked back up the hill to see the two skiers figure-eighting down the slope. It was an incredible mountain even though it was only 9,677 feet, with several glaciers and the potential for very nasty weather.

It's cool that you obsessed on St. Helens. The first time I saw it after the eruption (I was living in Juneau, AK at the time) was the fall of 1980. As we flew into Portland I was on the left side of the plane, on purpose so I could see the mountain. I still remember the very real sense that there was a huge hole in my gut as I looked at a place I had stood that was no longer there. Incredible! Four of us rented a plane and flew around the mountain, which had just receive a dusting of snow. My two favorite shots from that flight are below. Note that the dome building hadn't gotten underway yet.

Ryan, since you haven't signed the St. Helens summit register at SummitPost, I'm assuming you haven't climbed it yet. If you ever get out this way and want to climb it, let me know and maybe I could join you!

Bob

[Layne Bracy]

Mt St Helens is special to me, too. I decided to climb it in May 1999, solo, when I had very little experience. I wore jeans and sneakers - an acquaintance lent me gaiters. I carried a small backpack with 3 liters of gatorade.

When I drove down, I found the road closed/snowed in. Thus, I started at 2200', an extra 4 miles and 1500' one-way to get to the normal TH. It was an exhausting hike with lots of postholing, and I had nearly given up when I reached the rim - one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen looking over to Rainier. I was too tired to even think about going to the true HP .

Despite the long northern day, it was nearly dark when I returned to the car. Also, I had not used sunscreen and suffered the worst sunburnt face of my life.

Two years later I returned in the fall, hiking it as a scree slog to visit the true highpoint!

[BobBolton]

Great story Layne!