St. Helen's Before The Blast

[mothboy88]

Today is the aniversary of the big eruption if I remember correctly.

 

Question - Anybody here summit before the eruption? Was there any technical difficulty to it before or was it a slog like it is today?

[moonrover]

I hear it was often confused w/Mt. Adams. It was probably about the same. I met an old woman who had summited it long ago (when female climbers were few and far between), and she didn't seem to think it was all that hard. Then again, there were probably ways to make it so!

[hopalong]

There is a nice picture of it in 60s brown Becky.

[cj001f]

[MisterMo]

Did it in 68 via Forsyth Glacier & again a couple of years later via the Dog's Head. It was just a slog but very pretty and zero approach since you drove to timberline above Spirit Lake.

[Big_Wave_Dave]

Yup, 1979 on my birthday via Dogs Head. I remember it as an exciting climb but I was only 12 and it was my first experience on a glacier... We camped in the parking lot above Spirit Lake and watched meteors all night.

 

Incredible glissade down the bobsled run.

[Mal_Con]

I had summited at least 3 times. Once we packed up downhill skis to the top and marked the crevasses with wands. A great glissade track went from the top of dogshead to the parking lot. Also skied up after the blast but before it opened

[JoshK]

I wish I had known the pre-eruption st. helens. from all the photos I have seen it looked like it was the best looking of all the cascade volcanoes.

[glacier]

Also skied up after the blast but before it opened

 

We took a field trip into the Toutle River valley below he crater before it opened - thanks to having a prof who was on the mtn. the day before it went. Cool to look up into hte crater from the moonscape of the valley.

 

And if anyone has a 7.5 minute pre-eruption St. Helens topo, I'd be interested - I've got the 15 and the 30 minutes, and would like to complete my set.

[Loose_Brie]

I wonder who has documented proof of the "last acent"?

[assmonkey]

I wonder who has documented proof of the "last acent"?

Harry Truman.

[robert]

Thanks for the link. It is good to hear the other side to the legend of Harry Truman.

[Lowell_Skoog]

A great glissade track went from the top of dogshead to the parking lot.

 

That's one of my most distinctive memories of pre-eruption St Helens--an amazingly huge trough--visible from space probably--made by countless wet butts glissading down from the Dogshead. I remember sliding down it once and getting scared because the bottom of the trough had been scoured down to hard ice. It was difficult to stop. I climbed St Helens in the mid-1970s, but never did it with skis, unfortunately.

 

I have a film preserved by the Mountaineers History Committee of Sigurd Hall, Ralph Eskenazi, John James and Dwight Watson skiing St Helens in June 1938. Probably only a handful of ski descents had been made prior to that.

[klenke]

Boom chaka laka laka boom chaka laka laka...

[Blake]

where's the worm flows route?

[Lowell_Skoog]

I wonder who has documented proof of the "last ascent"?

 

In the Apr-May 1980 issue of Summit magazine, Pete Reagan wrote an article called "The Dragon's Mouth" about a climb of St Helens on April 10, 1980. This was after the eruptions had started but before the big blast. The summit had collapsed by this time. There may have been later climbs, but this was certainly the last one so well documented.

 

Pete also wrote articles about climbing St Helens soon after the blast. There are references on my ski history website:

 

http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/ref/summit-info.html#1980s

[robert]

The worm flows route is just left of the long single lobe of debris in the center of the image.

[johndavidjr]

I climbed it twice in 1978 with Evergreen State College students; once in February via Dogs Head & once in July via Shoestring Glacier. Rockfall on Shoestring very nearly killed six of us. It was an extremely harrowing and drawn-out experience. I would like to hear from anyone who was along on that trip if they happen on this post.

[Jim]

A friend of mine was taking some less experienced folks up a year before it went active. The weather came in and, being conservative with the newbies, he turned back about 500 ft below the summit. and said "Don't worry, the mountain will still be here". They never got up before it blew.

[chucK]

[sluggr]

I wonder who has documented proof of the "last acent"?

 

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.

[David_Parker]

Friends of mine were on Mt. Adams when it blew. They got some nice photos while being plummeted with pumice and larger than desired debris.

 

If you've never taken the tour up the new road up to Johnstone Ridge, it's worth it. The movie they run at the top is cool! "The only thing the government has done right recently" was my Dad's quote!

 

I found a big bag of all the newspaper articles from Seattle Times and Yakima whatever done in previous and following months at a thrift store for $5.00. Fabulous reading!

[mothboy88]

Friends of mine were on Mt. Adams when it blew. They got some nice photos while being plummeted with pumice and larger than desired debris.

I had no idea the St. Helens shot stuff larger than ash that far. Crazy.

[DonnV]

I climbed it several times before it blew, and spent the night on the summit in March, 1980. Definitely not the last ascent, probably at least one of the last "legal" ascents (I think the mountain was closed 3 weeks later when quakes caused massive avalanches), very likely the last overnight on the summit, but we are sure it was the last time anyone drank Inglenook Burgundy on the summit. That's our one claim to fame and we're stickin' to it!

 

The only routes of any technical interest at all (i.e there was a crevasse or two to negotiate) were the Forsythe Glacier and the Shoestring Glacier. The latter was sort of interesting just because it was so narrow. Some group in SW Washington or Portland had published a guidesheet to St. Helens climbing that listed the primary difficulties of south side routes as "boredom and mosquitoes."

 

There was outstanding glissading off all sides of the peak.

[gapertimmy]

who got the last ski descent? that must have been a fun ride back then.