Looked like a few rare days of glorious weather coming our way when I checked last Friday so I thought it would be a good time to scratch the winter version of MSH off the list. Put the word out but with permits for a Monday climb only one other was able to come along. We weren't disappointed to say the least. Was warm and windless at the summit. Could see 5 volcano's clearly including the one we stood on. All the way to Jefferson. Looked like another just to the left but further back. Could just barely make it out. No idea what that peak was. Got a little fried in the process even with a hat and sunblock on. Some of the best bum sliding to date. Zipping down 2,000 feet in about 15 minutes in sometimes long deep chutes. Getting back in record time. To much fun.


Here's some photo's to give you an idea of what we experienced. You can just barely see us ant's in the last four photo's traversing over to the highest point of MSH if you squint. Enjoy.

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HUGE WONDERFUL EPIC. Fantastic trip that is, enjoyed your shots and reflectedon when I did this with a group during the height of summer some years back.

The pictures are awesome, beautiful shots of the Volcano.

BCG

Apparently I can't just put a happy face.

Hey Karl,


Yes it looks a little different with all the white stuff on it. Couldn't find the Loowit Trail we did the last time we circumnavigated it around 3 years back. Under 10 or more feet of snow somewhere I suspect. A different longer trail in the winter as well. Eventually the Worm Flow joins up with the Monitor Ridge trail nearing the rim. Was worth the sunburn I still managed to get despite the sunblock and the hat. (:

Awesome! Never been, but looks like a fun one!

Oh wow that's quite a gong on the rim.. Back in last November I got the entire summit rim to myself.

Nice! The day Sidetrip and I went up, over 150 permits were sold. That was a Monday! Geez... lots of people are skipping work to enjoy the sunshine And just think... 500 permits were sold on each Sat and Sun the week before. All the permits are sold out as of last week of May till Sept 2017. Pretty insane.

Haha yeah. It was a very much last minute spontaneous decision. the only reason I went for it was the weather, good south of Seattle but crappy up north, but there was some advantages. No permit complication (self registration), no crowds, and you gotta enjoy both the summer scenery (lower down) and winter (up high). First snowshoe trip of the season too.

http://stevensong.com/mount-st-helens

When we reached the rim there were around 35 people soaking up the rays. I felt like I was at the beach. That was fine though. The day before 500 people had permits and the same for Saturday. Consider myself lucky we came Monday. We were the only two traversing over to the true summit and had that side to ourselves so that was pleasant. There were even people coming up in tu tu's and one guy in a full basset hound outfit for some strange reason. He must have been melting in there. I'll see if I can find a picture of that.