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.
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