painandgreed
First Post
Mt. Saint Helens. A group of us climbed up the side (the one that isn't missing) of it to the top.You can climb all the way without any special equipment besides good hiking shoes. Although you need a pass to climb above tree level, they're easy to get and a group of about eight of us took off on the longest day of the year to do so. First there's a long drive up the mountain till you get to the begining of the trail. Then there's a two mile hike through the trees till you get to the edge of the trees. Then it's up that wall of snow and rock. It was summer but there was plenty of snow and it was all sort of mushy and gave decent footing while walking in it. Eight hours later all but two of us made it to the rim and could look down into the crater. I was one of the ones that didn't make it. The altitude was hitting me pretty hard and I ran out of water about 500 feet altitude from the top in the hottest part of the day. With the rest of the climb to go and everybody else running low on water I decided not to kill myself.
Then came the fun part, glissading. You're sitting there, several thousand feet above the tree line looking down the mother off all sledding hills. We'd brought things like rain coats just for this and ran and jumped ontop of them. A minute later and several thousand feet lower and you've had the ride ot your life, better than any amusement park ride. We did it again and again and then realized we'd come down the wrong side of a ridge and not where we were supposed to be. Eight hours of climbing undone by 15 minutes of goofing off and we weren't about to try and go back up and come down agian. Going over the ridge proved too dangerous so we kept going down figureing we'd cut across once in the treeline. It was pristine snow except for the track of one other couple who had come down the same way. We were falling through holes in the snow and at one point had to jump over a crevace with a rushing stream ten feet below. We were doing ok till one girl spraned her ankle when her foot went through the snow and twisted between two rocks.
By time we made the trees, it was dark, she could barely walk and we were still some ways from the two mile trail back to the car. Me and two other guys went off with a topo map to find the trail and the others sat down and started a fire because they were sure we're going to have to spend the night on the mountain. Well, we found the trail and one of us went to call on an emergency phone while the other two of us went back to get everybody else. They had a fire going and were doing fairly well. It was fun to hang out for a bit around a camp fire but then we put it out and went back to the trail. By time we got there, the girl couldn't walk anymore. Everybody was talking about how they were going to have to bring in a helicopter to lift her out. I said "no, what's going to happen is that two hunky guys are going to show up and they're going to carry you out piggy back style." Sure enough, two twenty something guys with full mountaineering gear and the bodies of Greek gods showed up took turns carrying her out on their backs. We ended up getting home 24 hours after we had left.
Then came the fun part, glissading. You're sitting there, several thousand feet above the tree line looking down the mother off all sledding hills. We'd brought things like rain coats just for this and ran and jumped ontop of them. A minute later and several thousand feet lower and you've had the ride ot your life, better than any amusement park ride. We did it again and again and then realized we'd come down the wrong side of a ridge and not where we were supposed to be. Eight hours of climbing undone by 15 minutes of goofing off and we weren't about to try and go back up and come down agian. Going over the ridge proved too dangerous so we kept going down figureing we'd cut across once in the treeline. It was pristine snow except for the track of one other couple who had come down the same way. We were falling through holes in the snow and at one point had to jump over a crevace with a rushing stream ten feet below. We were doing ok till one girl spraned her ankle when her foot went through the snow and twisted between two rocks.
By time we made the trees, it was dark, she could barely walk and we were still some ways from the two mile trail back to the car. Me and two other guys went off with a topo map to find the trail and the others sat down and started a fire because they were sure we're going to have to spend the night on the mountain. Well, we found the trail and one of us went to call on an emergency phone while the other two of us went back to get everybody else. They had a fire going and were doing fairly well. It was fun to hang out for a bit around a camp fire but then we put it out and went back to the trail. By time we got there, the girl couldn't walk anymore. Everybody was talking about how they were going to have to bring in a helicopter to lift her out. I said "no, what's going to happen is that two hunky guys are going to show up and they're going to carry you out piggy back style." Sure enough, two twenty something guys with full mountaineering gear and the bodies of Greek gods showed up took turns carrying her out on their backs. We ended up getting home 24 hours after we had left.
