Devil's Tower -- The "Classic" Durrance route, Jul '00
Mt. St. Helens -- The "Standard" Monitor Ridge route, Aug '00
Mt. Rainier -- Training climb to Ingraham Glacier, May '01
Mt. Rainier -- Tahoma Glacier route, Jul '01
MT. ST. HELENS -- THE "STANDARD" MONITOR RIDGE ROUTE, AUG '00
**Mouseover on the picture**
I was about three and half years old when Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, so I don't remember anything that happened that day. I heard that the ash in the sky carried across the U.S., as far east as Indiana and probably futher. It is now amazing to see, close up in person, what the eruption did to the landscape around the mountain.
Gary, Connie and Gary's friend, Steve, and his late wife (Karen), son (Michael; 10), daughter (Jen; 7) and brother (Rich) and another of Gary and Connie's friends, Gary, and his wife (Cathy) all hiked up the "standard" Monitor Ridge route on Mt. St. Helens in August of 2000.To the left is the sandy/ashy desert of the summit curve.
From the top of Mt. St. Helens, I took a shot of people coming up the
desert trail. You wouldn't believe that the entire top half of the mountain
looks like a gigantic sandy beach (like the Indiana Dunes, for you country
folk). It's truly amazing, especially if you visit any other mountain in the
Pacific Northwest because they are usually so green and thick with
vegetation.
In the middle
of the picture is the "actual" summit of Mt. St. Helens. There isn't much level
ground for standing around on top of the summit ridge. There is only a narrow
5-6 ft. strip of flat ground where one can walk to the "actual" summit and back
down to the trail. To the left, in the picture, there is the mountain slope and
to the right, is the steep drop-off to the core of the volcano.
Yada...Yada...back to the top of the page
The core is still steaming (those are clouds in the lower right, not steam, but you can see steam when clouds aren't around). No one is allowed in the core because rocks are constantly tumbling down the steep inner faces and because the core, with tons of rocks piled on, is rather warm.
Ben on top of Mt. St. Helens. I was going for "rugged masculinity." Did I pull it off? Anyways, you can't see in the picture on the web site, but Mt. Rainier is to my right. Everyone that I went with that day made it to the top. Even the 7 year old Jen and 10 year old Michael. Pretty amazing.
Another amazing thing
happened that day, Steve's late wife Karen, who was fighting a battle with a
brain tumor and on chemo at the time of the climb, never gave up and climbed to
the top of Mt. St. Helens. It was very inspirational to see her climb to the
top with her 7 year old daughter next to her. It opened my eyes to the thing
that really matters in life: family. Sadly, Karen passed away about one year
later on Aug. 7, 2001.Back to the top
