Mt St Helens

Today is one step closer to one of my recent goals. I’ve wanted to climb Mt. St. Helens for the past several months, since I realized it was the least difficult of the Cascade volcanoes in the winter time.

Nick and met in Lakewood at 0530 and drove in my car down to the town of Cougar, WA. We made very good time, but it was early in the morning of a Federal holiday. The last 10 miles of the road to the sno-park were pretty well iced over, but my car didn’t slip once. At the Marble Mountain sno-park there were only a few other people, but it was very cold. We ducked inside the large warming hut to gear up for the hike.

The south side of Mt. St. Helens has a very extensive snowmobile and cross country ski trail system. The trail that we took was well packed down and was easy travel on the snow. We wore snowshoes for about an hour, but never really needed them. The weather was perfectly clear and calm. The most wind we saw all day was a 5mph breeze.

When we were almost at the tree line we stumbled upon a snow cave that someone else had built and occupied for a few days. After leaving the tree line there was a well marked boot path that ran up a ridge and along a line of rocks that made route finding easy.

At about noon we stopped to eat lunch at some rocks overlooking the south side of the mountain. We dug in the snow to get out of the breeze and enjoyed a warm meal in a serene location. I had a MRE and hot cocoa. I shared my MRE with Nick and he was surprised at how good it tasted.

After lunch we pressed on further up the mountain. It got steep in a few places and there was more ice the higher we went. At about 3pm we decided that we had gone far enough and took some pictures before turning around. There was an inspiring view of Mt Adams and Mt. Hood from that spot. Near the rocks there was a seismic monitoring station that had been knocked over. Not realizing this, I started pounding a picket into the snow only a few feet away from the station. Hopefully it wasn’t strong enough to be recorded. Snow pickets are used as anchors in climbing. I recently bought one and wanted to see how well it would hold in snow. I was pleasantly surprised. After pounding it into the snow, no amount of leaning or pulling would break it loose.

The return down the mountain was strait forward and uneventful. We made very good time on the decent alternating between glissading on the packed snow and plunge stepping into the softer snow. We made it back to the car and the warming hut at 5pm just as it was getting dark.

Despite not summiting, it was an immensely enjoyable day. For me, it’s more important to have fun and be safe than bag a summit. I enjoyed spending time with a new friend and being in the outdoors and training for bigger climbs. Above all, I enjoyed the pervasive stillness and peace that seemed to characterize the day. The only sound was our feet on the snow, and whenever we stopped everything was still and it seemed as if there was no on else in the world and everything was silent. Being from the city, it is not often that one experiences true silence. I would have liked to spend a night there just to sit and stare at the beauty around me and ponder life. I think it is ironic to have experienced so much peace and silence on Mt St Helens, the most active and climbed Volcano in the US. I plan to return to try again at the summit at the earliest possible opportunity. This time I will try to camp in the vicinity of the mountain. Ideally, I would get an alpine start and summit shortly after sunrise and watch the sunrise from high up on the mountain.

Aerial photo by USFS.

A lesson in Canadian dining...

Some background…

A few weeks ago I got a Christmas card from my friend John in California. It was a funny card and it was good to hear from him. On the 29^th of December, I was sitting at the computer and my wife handed the card and Said “he left his email address, you should write to him”

While I was out snowshoeing with Charles on the 30^th, I got a call from John to say that we was in Seattle with some buddies and wanted to meet up while he was here. I called him after the hike was done and he said that they were in town until the 2^nd and wanted to me to go to Victoria with them. We made plans to meet near my house at 6am so that we could drive to Port Angles to catch the 8:20am ferry.

The Trip…

I got up at 5am to fuel the car and make sure I got there on time. John, Luke and Aaron didn’t get there until 6:30am. I knew we wouldn’t make the morning ferry, but tried anyways. We pulled in to Port Angeles at 8:30am, only ten minutes late, but too late. We parked near the terminal and passed out in the car for two hours. We were all hungry when we woke up at around 10, so we had a good breakfast at the dockside café.

After breakfast we headed up to Hurricane ridge to check out the view and kill some time. I had never been there in the winter time, so I really enjoyed the breathtaking scenery. The visitor’s center was crowded, and there were lots of people there with all kinds of snow toys. I wished I had my snowshoes and more time. We didn’t have much time. After snapping some pictures and using the bathroom it was time to head back down to catch our ferry. We made it back to Port Angeles just in time.

After disembarking from the ferry in Victoria, we checked into the Fairmont Empress, and then decided to find some food. I tried to lead us to the Elephant and Castle Pub, but I couldn’t remember where it was. After 15 minutes of wandering around downtown Victoria, I finally conceded I didn’t know where it was. It wasn’t even on the map of the area. A few minutes later we walked by where it should have been and found out it had closed. I wasn’t crazy.

New Year’s Eve…

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After half an hour of searching, we finally found a pub that was open and ate at Darcy’s. I had a bbq lamb burger. It was very good, but I thought It was overpriced. Then I remembered one of the two best things to get in Canada is Gelato. It only took us a few minutes to find a store selling 61 flavors of Gelato, and it took me ten minutes to decide which flavors to get. I finally decided on Grand Marnier and Mocha Kahlua. We ate it on the way back to the Hotel.

The Fairmont Empress is one of the finest hotels in Victoria and without a doubt the most historic and full of character. It was built 100 years ago, in the style of Victorian England, but it has since added some Canadian and Pacific Northwest flavor. The Empress and the Parliament building are the focal point of the inner harbor, and probably the most photographed buildings in British Columbia. Our room was comfortable, and they have a very nice health club, pool and spa at the first floor. My only complaint about the health club is that Canadians keep their spa at a few degrees below boiling in order to keep people out so they don’t have to clean them.

After a very warm and somewhat relaxing time in the spa, we left the hotel again in search of a pub to wait for midnight. As with dinner we had to try three pubs before we found one that had room to let us in. We spent the next several hours in the Sticky Wicket and spent midnight at Sauce. After midnight we got pizza and then went to bed.

We woke up at 8am on New Year’s Day to try catch the 10:30am ferry, but first we had to find breakfast. Since the Gelato store was closed, we were forced to look elsewhere. After walking around downtown for 20 minutes we decided to go back to the hotel for breakfast. It turned out there were have a buffet, which sounded good to us. It was the best breakfast buffet I have ever had, and was all English style. I had English breakfast tea, smoked salmon, sausage, crab cakes Benedict, and some very good pastries. At the end of our meal we found out why we enjoyed it so much. It was 30 dollars per person. None of us had any idea they would charge that much, and would not have gone if we had known.

We got to the ferry terminal at the end of the boarding line, only to be denied by U.S. Customs. Luke, one of the members of our party was an English citizen and didn’t have one of the forms needed for his student visa. So while he got that faxed we got more Gelato. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made it back on the afternoon ferry.

Gold Creek Basin

I met up Charles about 11am on Saturday, Dec 30^th. He had a bible study he had to be at and I had spent half an hour looking for my iTrip, so we got a late start as usual. I had printed out a list of snowshoe route off of I-90 from the N.F. service website, and so picked Gold Creek Basin because of the late start.

The hike started out along a wide trail, and was very crowded, with skiers, snowshoers, and snowmobiles. The route was easy, and parts were very pretty, but the trail ran through private property and it was hard to stay on the real trail at times. It was a fun trip, but not a destination I would want to repeat on a weekend.