Climbing Mt. St. Helens
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The route and rocks along the way to the summit of Mt. St. Helens. In 2021, I got a permit to climb Mt. St. Helens. I became a geologist because of volcanoes, including Mt. St. Helens. This was a bucket list climb with some spectacular natural features along the way.
What a gorgeous day for hiking. And so few people for such a pretty day. What time of year? Some fresh snow but looks like it hasn’t accumulated enough to glissade - or maybe it’s out there but you’re avoiding it…October?
From every academic source I can find detailing the 1980 eruption, the South side of the mountain - including where you’re hiking (assume that’s Monitor Ridge) - was essentially spared from the eruption. Some rock and ashfall, sure, but the only Lahar was a relatively small one that flowed down Swift Creek and into the reservoir , which is a half a mile to the East of where you are.
But I could be wrong…
@@swainscheps it was mid-October and a perfect day! It had snowed a few days before, so I could tell I was the first to walk out to the true summit. Most of the other hikers stop right at the rim.
Didn’t glissade :(. A bit too rocky that day, except for maybe right beneath the summit.
You’re right, the eruption was focused towards the north, which started with a giant landslide, directed eruption called a lateral blast, and the main pyroclastic flow. The USGS aerial footage shows some small pyroclastic flows all over the mountain during the 1980 eruption during the ash cloud phase after the initial violent part of the eruption. Those pyroclastic flows might have later been mapped as mudflows, but it’s hard to get a good orientation from bouncing, grainy footage from an old airplane. Based on the ash cloud, the flows you can see in the USGS footage would have been on the east or southeastern side.
You just powered right on up that
I hope you showed this to your 😊students
What trailhead did you start at?
🤘 ᑭᖇOᗰOᔕᗰ
Cascades... Ozarks. What's the difference.
The mountains