sluggr

One of the Mt St Helen's memorabelia picture books has an aerial picture of 3 climbers in bright red, orange, and yellow jackets standing on the summit about 50 ft away from a 100 yard long smoldering black crack. IIRC the caption mentioned late April of 1980. At that point the area around the mountain was closed off so it would have been a significant pack-in. I'd also suggest the book "Volcano Cowboys," written by one of the Volcanologists who worked on that project and then went on to do Mt Pinatubo (sp?) and others around the world as a special volcano response team. They go into detail about how and why decisions were made given what they knew at the time. There is a copy in the Mazamas library.

Mt Washington has the highest ever "measured" wind speed. That is because they have a weather station on top, and yes, I have been there. I bet there are much higher wind speeds where there aren't weather stations. We don't make a big deal about our cars making it to Timberline Lodge, even though it is similar to driving up Mount washington. Mount Washington also has warning signs about dangerous weather conditions. Ranier had a similar sign until it was destroyed by the weather. That being said, I still believe the danger of Mount Washington is overrated because of its proximity to large crowds of city people who have no understanding or appreciation of the danger of the outdoors. Poor preparation and training have more to do with accidents there than the objective hazards.

Take a look at Mount Washington in NH. It has a dangerous label attached to it solely because it is in such close proximity to a pool of 100 million accidents waiting to happen. How many times have we heard stories about a couple of Bubbas who drive up from Jersey for an outdoor weekend and then find themselves in way over their heads (once the cell phone batteries run out). Sure, they get some cold, windy and snowy days with an avalanche hazard, but in no way is it more dangerous than any of the cascades.