climbing Mt St Helens

NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
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So I've done this 3 times. Dave sent me a message about a couple of the pics in my BF gallery page the other day, so I decided to post these up. St Helens has always been a big part of my life... I have spent a LOT of time hiking all around it, it was a given that I'd go to the top sometime. :)

Here's a shot from the trail head
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A view of Mt Adams as you're working up out of the timber.

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Getting out of the timber and towards the boulders
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Heading up the boulders and looking back at the timber.
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A little further up
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That's a lot-O boulders. ;)
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You see this view and think, oh once we get up to that ridge... but then there's another one, and another, and... you get the idea :)
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This is THE WORST part... lots of ash and pumice. You literally take 2 steps forward, one step back :grumpy: And yea, it's kind'a steep and stuff ;)
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Wahoo! Looking down into the crater (and at my and Angi's feet :D)
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Looking over at Spirit Lake. This was lake was a "resort lake" before 1980. After the eruption it was a wasteland. If you look close, what looks like shoreline (light gray) is actually THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of logs that are still in the lake because of the eruption. There are ACRES of logs floating there.
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I forgot this one.... look at all those rocks ;)
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Here's some hot chick on the way up ;)

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Here's some fat guy looking out at the crater
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Can you imagine the force when this was all just blasted up and away?!?!
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Looking toward the other side of the crater walls
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A shot zoomed in on the lake
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Looking back down toward the end of the trail... you can see some folks on their way up.
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That is one sexy sexy man! ;) LMAO :p
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Angi looking out into the crater
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Headed back down
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Will, whatever do you mean buddy?!?!?! :confused:

;) :D

Yea, she's slightly better to look at than me ;) Good thing she likes fat, bald guys! :D

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Excellent tour. How long did it take from start, to top, to hang out, and then to finish? 6 hours?

I'm jealous. :thumbup:

Coop
 
NickWheeler said:
Will, whatever do you mean buddy?!?!?! :confused:

;) :D

Yea, she's slightly better to look at than me ;) Good thing she likes fat, bald guys! :D

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Click to expand...

You know they say the perfect marriage is a blind woman and a deaf man! :D:p

Thanks for sharing the great pics. :thumbup:
 
Some nice shots of beautiful scenes there. I always have loved high places.

A question though.... You said you hiked to the top, but I'm only seeing nature shots and pictures of your dad and his girlfriend.?. How do we know you really climbed to the top? I don't see any 12 year old nerds in any of the shots, so where are you? :eek::D:p ;)

--nathan
 
The other thing..... there's no proof she's actually someone you know. Pictures of her, no pictures of you and her cept the easily faked "our feet together at the top" picture. Prolly stolen from someone else's site (this happened last week to my daughter's friend) which is easily done by most 12 yo n3rdz with l33t sk33lz.
 
Great view. How long did the hike take?

How many feet of the top did the mountain lose?

I might have to look into this next summer.
 
nick i was up there in 1980, of course after we could drive quite a way up .i never saw so many downed trees. looked like God snezzed & all the trout had perished. after all these years it still looks like the moon of hell. at least the air was clear, most of the time i was elk hunting it was foggy & raining. thanks for a real pleasant trip back in time.
 
Thanks for the replies guys (well some of you anyway ;) :D)

The first time all 11 of us were young and in shape. It took just shy of 5 hours up and about 2.5 hours to get down (not counting the time hanging out at the top).

The second time we had some not so in shape people from work and my sister who has very bad asthma. We made it in about 6 and back down in 2.5-3 hours (hung out at the top for about 1 hour plus this time).

Last time (August 31, 2009) we took Angi's CRAZY CRAZY sister and she wanted to stop every 10 feet and either complain about her pack or talk to nature. Even though I was about 240 then, I still could have made it in 5.5 hours...... but with her sister we made it in 6.5 hours :rolleyes: Angi and I hung out at the top for almost 3 hours, and headed back down in 2.5.

The most impressive time I PERSONALLY know of was a husband and wife I know that are triathletes. They made it up in 4 and down in a little over 2.

Here's a cool link just in case anybody is interested. :)

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
 
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