amochka

I lost my Garmin eTrex 30 somewhere between the Red Saddle and down the south ridge to Goat Peak where we camped. If anyone happens to find it (doubtful in the crap scree/rocks up there), I'd love to see it again. On the off chance you come across it, please contact me..thanks.

Thanks....the skeeter spray was the first thing to go in my pack. I'm taking a few people who haven't climbed B.T. before up there and when I've done it, it's been free of snow. Wanted to make sure I wasn't going to have to be dealing the extra gear they'd have to bring for snow camping, etc....We aren't going until the 14th, so another week of meltout and I'd imagine the route from Green Lakes will be even more snow free...Worried more about getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and getting smoked out by the fire north of there.

Just wondering if anyone's been up there this week...any snow left at Green Lakes? Much snow on the ridge up Broken Top? Hoping that we'll be camping on dirt...Thanks for any info. re: conditions..

A hiker in our group lost a camera on mt.ellinor yesterday. If anyone happens to go up there in the next few weeks for a hike and you find a Canon Powershot in a red and black case, can you please let us know. Thanks! Amy sherwoodacupuncture@comcast.net

Was up there Friday night/Sat a.m., and my buddy and I got to the plateau above Crater Rock, took a look at everyone heading up the Old Chute and decided to call it and head back down. We had been pelted by small ice crap all morning coming up in the dark near Crater Rock, with the occasional baseball sized chunk flying by. A tad unnerving, since the last few times I've seen some the ice balls and stuff coming down it was due to climbers above me and it was in the chute. This was just on the east side of Crater Rock with no one above us. Crater Rock was really shooting stuff down when we were up there. We came upon the team with the injured woman on our way down (we knew some of them) and were impressed with how calm and collected they all were considering the crap storm of ice and rock that hit them onthe other side of Crater Rock. My two cents: wait awhile for all this crap to come down or wait for a colder night. We got to the top or Crater Rock at 5 am and a ton of stuff was already starting to roll down the inside of the crater, and the sun hadn't even hit the upper crater area yet. We knew that if we pushed for the summit, we could probably make it up and down before things really warmed up above the chute, but we listened to our guts and called it. It was a weird warm night up there.

Marc...do have any pictures of the route from when you were up there recently. And what was the snow like near the summit? If our party's pretty comfortable on steep snow w/axe/crampons, will that do? Is there even snow at the top of the route? Sounds like it doesn't matter because the bugs may take us down before we have a chance to get up there! amy

Definitely not a climb for plastic boots. It was a dry climb from start to finish, no snow to cross unless you want to use it on the way down to avoid boulder hopping. Plastics would be too hot and unnecessary. I'd wear something comfortable. More importantly, wear gaiters or make sure your pants secure around your boots somehow to avoid getting ash/pumice in your boots. Clothing recommendation: keep yourself covered, the sun exposure can be intense up there, everyone in our party wore long sleeves (cotton top) and long pants (with zip off bottoms so if it got super hot you'd be in shorts). Recommend layering, and definitely don't forget a sun hat or some sort for the trip back down. You may want some lightweight gloves, as the boulder fields you scramble up have kind of sharp volcanic rock. A few people in our group wore some thin gloves during those sections. The parking lot and climbers bivy are the same thing. You park and throw your tent down and then in the morning you walk about 20 steps to the trailhead to start the climb. Don't forget your bug spray. Helmets: no one up there had one on, but a few of us threw it in the bottom of our packs figuring the only time we'd really need it is if the mountain burped/erupted and starting throwing rocks. There's no rockfall on the route, so no real need to wear a helmet up there. The people who looked most comfortable on the mountain had left really early, carried a lot of water, wore long pants or gaiters and were slathering on sunscreen and using trekking poles on the descent. A friend from our group posted a trip report on summitpost.org in the forum section under the mt.st.helens discussion thread...he attached a few photos too. You could check that out....have fun! It's a great climb right now with all the volcanic activity happening...

Just got back from our climb today, Sunday 23rd of July. Similar to esullender's experience. We got to the climbers bivy about 5:30 pm, which was pretty late. We had to scrounge around for a campsite for our group of seven. Friendly ranger gavea talk at the trailhead at 7 pm, which most of the people there attended. He talked about the conditions, what to expect on the trail, some history of recent eruptive events, etc. I would HIGHLY recommend bug spray for the climbers bivy. There were some very nasty biting flies all around. The ranger told everyone that they shouldn't leave past about 4 or 5 am, because people had become pretty heat exhausted that day by the afternoon. Our group left at 2 am. Headlamps the whole way up, a little tough picking out trail just below monitor ridge, but scan around for the big posts marking the trail, and you can pretty much figure it out. Sunrise just short of the summit. Amazing volcanic activity at the top, sulfur vents spewing yellow smoke, rocks falling on the heap/fin and making a lot of noise. Summit was at 6:30am. Stayed up there about 45 minutes to an hour. Headed down, started to get really hot around 9 am. Some members of the party used the snowfields rather than pick a path through tedious pumice boulder fields. They attempted some glissading, but didn't work well, not steep enough. Biting flies welcomed us back to treeline, back to camp at 10:30 am. This was my third time up, the last being in 2004 before they closed it to climbing. Things are MUCH different in the crater...it was incredible. Highly recommend very early start if it's hot out. I had 3 1/2 liters on me and finished the last sip when we got to camp. Others in our group drank a lot more than that. Many people had waited until sunrise to head up and looked absolutely miserable headed up as we were heading back down. enjoy! should be cooler next weekend...

I thought that was strange as well when I went to the website, but I'm guessing that since people aren't officially allowed to climb until the 21st, maybe the road is 'closed' until then. The road must be open in terms of road conditions, since a large group went up the mountain yesterday on a 'preview' climb (front of Oregonian today).... They must figure that the only reason you'd be up at the climbers bivy is to start up the monitor ridge trail, and since you're not supposed to be there yet, there's no reason to offically open the road until the 20th... I have a few extra passes for sunday the 23rd if anyone is interested in them... amy

I just got this email from the mt st helens climbing info. people. They're sending this email out to people who made advanced permit reservations this spring. Looks like it's opening on July 21st for climbing, permits are $22: Mount St. Helens Climbing Reservation Holders will have a Limited-Time to Confirm and Purchase Climbing Permits (for their reserved dates only) before remaining Permits are Sold to the General Public The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is planning to reopen climbing beginning July 21, 2006. Between July 7 and July 12, 2006 any persons who already have confirmed reservations for July 21 and later will have an opportunity to purchase their reserved climbing permits in advance. Starting July 13, reservations not purchased in advance will be cancelled and all permit dates will be available for purchase through the Mount St. Helens Institute on the Active.com website.