Mt St Helens - Monitor Ridge Route

This weekend Carolyn and I along with Doug, Naomi and Bob met up with a group of friends from Seattle to climb Mt. St. Helens.

We started at 7:25 am on September 9th. We reached the crater rim around 12:15pm.

The view was amazing. We spent about an hour at the top taking in the view, shooting photos and eating lunch.

The climb back down was very hard on the feet and ankles. We reached Climber's Bivouac at 5pm.

It was a challenging hike, but the view was worth it. It was so neat to see the new cone building up inside the crater and steam coming out.

In general, the Monitor Ridge route to the top of Mt. St. Helens consisted of 2 miles of well kept trail through trees, 2 miles of climbing up a boulder field, and 1 mile of steep gravelly ash to the top.

Here is some more detailed information from the GPS.

Climber's Bivouac: 3,737 feet
Tree Line: 4,836 feet
Crater Rim: 8,281 feet

Elevation Gain: 4,544 feet

9.5 miles round trip
9 1/2 hours round trip

See our path in Google Earth

Golfing Golfland

Carolyn and I went golfing with Aaron today. We went to this course in Pasco called Golfland (see it in Google Earth). It was only $9 per person for 9 holes. The course is a par 3.

We started off by sharing a small bucket of ball on the driving range. Everyone was all over the place. Some shots went far, some toppers, slices, hooks. It wasn't pretty. Maybe it was the heat (100 degrees!). The driving range was cool because it had lots of old satellite dishes to shoot at. We came close to hitting one, but just overshot it.

After the driving range, we headed to the course for a round of nine holes. We did MUCH better on the course. Aaron had a great first shot on the 2nd hole pictured here. He put it right on the green only 3 or 4 feet from the hole. Amazing! On the 6th hole, we encountered two chickens. One had a crazy punk-rocker-like hairdo. Strange. Aaron tried to get them to peck a golf ball but they weren't interested.

Last year Carolyn and I went golfing several times. She had some trouble getting good loft on the ball. After the first hole, Aaron told her to just step up and whack it. That's what worked for him. So Carolyn gave it a try. She stepped up (and with no practice swings) hit a solid shot. It had great loft and travelled straight! She continued doing well on many of the holes. Huge improvement over last year. It was fun to see.

Everyone had a great time. I'm sure we'll go golfing again. A par 3 course works well for our skill level. I think we'll try the course at Columbia Park next time.

Planning Mt. St. Helens

A while back our two friends, Geoff and Lin, told us about this trip to Mt. St. Helens that they were planning. They said we should quickly sign up because only 100 permits per day are issued to go up Mt. St. Helens. We briefly discussed this with Bob, Doug and Naomi. They were onboard. We got online ASAP and secured our permits. The five us signed up to climb Mt. St. Helens! Yay!

Now a few weeks later we share with some new REI friends (David and Tereese) that we're going to be climbing Mt. St. Helens. They start describing their most recent climb up St. Helens. "We planned on doing it in 8 hours, but it ended up taking us 11 hours." WHHAAAAAT? We hadn't done any research on the actual climb, we just got our permits and assumed it was something we could do.

Now Carolyn and I are both freaked out. Eleven hours of hiking for these experienced hikers. How can we possibly make it? We are now motivated to research the climb and prepare ourselves.

I started by looking at the Forest Service website to find out some general information. The common climbing path is called the Monitor Ridge route. This route is 5 miles over rugged terrain starting at Climbers Bivouac. It is not a technical climb, but you do need to be in good physical condition. You gain 4,500 feet to an altitude of 8,365 feet.

At least we know what we're up against now.

Front to back and back again

On Monday, Carolyn and I were hiking the front side of Badger Mountain and encountered another couple hiking. The man and woman were going up the hill as we were coming down. When I passed him, he said something that I didn't completely hear, but he was acting as though he knew me. I didn't recognize him AT ALL. No clue. He continued to look at me like he knew me. Before I could say much, Carolyn started saying hi to him like she knew who he was. I decided to just listen until I figured out who this guy was. After he spoke for a minute, I remembered him as an REI employee we see occasionally.

The guy's name was David and the woman's name was Tereese. They were climbing badger in preparation for a trip in a couple weeks to climb Mt Adams. They were hiking the Badger Mountain trail from front side to the top, down the back side, then turn around to go back up the back side and down the front side. Carolyn and I are both impressed by their path along Badger and their future hike up Mt Adams.

So in the morning on Wednesday, the fourth of July, Carolyn and I decided to give it a try. Front to back and back again. We brought 3 bottles of water with us and started the hike. The temperature was expected to reach 100 degrees and was already at 80 when we started hiking at 9am.

The front side trail up Badger is 1.2 miles long. It is another 2.2 miles down the back side trail. We ran a little short on water at the end, but we did it! Carolyn is amazing. I know she must have been tired and hot, but she just kept on chugging along. I'm always impressed by her endurance.

Here are some interesting stats from our hike:

• 1.2 miles ascending 800 feet up the front side trail
• 2.2 miles descending 661 feet down the back side trail
• Round trip: 6.8 miles
• 2 hours 41 minutes walking
• 19 minutes resting
• 1557 feet at highest point

Of course, I had my GPS with me the whole way so I could collect of this info. I downloaded the path information the GPS keeps track of the figured out how to plot it on Google Earth and Google Maps. Check those out! If you don't have Google Earth yet, its free to download and a great tool. Make sure and tilt your view angle so you can see the topography of Badger Mountain!

The Beginning

I'm thinking about starting a blog. Carolyn already posts a blog with descriptions of all our our adventures. I'm wondering ... What can I do that is useful and different? We go to all the same events and on all the same adventures.

The thing that came to mind is my GPS. I almost always take it with me and see how high we go, how far we walk, what path we follow. I also have my technical skills to give my blog an extra boost. So my idea is to combine my GPS information with pictures, video and other tidbits to share on the web.

Stay tuned ...