Monitor Ridge - Mount St. Helens

“On the 18 May 1980, Mt St Helens, a prominent volcano in Washington, USA, exploded. The eruption, which killed 57 people and caused widespread damage to forests and travel infrastructure, remains the largest volcanic event in the contiguous US states for over 100 years. It is located in Washington State off I-5 approximately 2.5 hours south of Seattle and 1.5 hours north of Portland.” [4Feet]: Mount St Helens had been identified as the most active volcano in the Cascade Range, and the No. 2 of the most threatening ones in the US. For us, we described it as a teenager-in-puberty. She is young, irate, moody, and after all, she is “a pain in the ash”. Believe it or not; most of Mount St. Helens is younger than 3,000 years old (younger than the pyramids of Egypt). The hike is merely over four miles from Climber's Bivouac Trailhead to the summit, yet the ash and mountain wind made the climbing extra challenging. We planned for a day hike on an early morning call and were well prepared with lab goggles, wind-proof pants, and jackets. Starting with an easy forest hike until the sign of “a permit required beyond this point”, the trail turned into a rocky and steep climb. Fortunately, the big rocks were stable and allowed climbers to put weight on them without sliding or falling down. It was a beautiful sunny day in the morning; the visibility is almost 100% until noon when the clouds started to gather. The cloud ocean became thicker as we climbed higher - a clear blue sky on a cloudy day. Mount Adams on the left showed its magnificent size, and Mount Hood was right in the center. We were well prepared as it got, yet we found the permit missing. Of course, the rangers showed up on the day we missed our permits. We were written a warning and asked to climb down as we had gone beyond on Monitor Ridge. It was unfortunate when the summit was already in sight and merely 1.2 miles away (still have 1,800 feet of elevation though). The permit for climbing Mount St Helens over 4,800’ was extremely hard to get again. Therefore, we decided to come back again for a summit attempt on the 1st of November when the number of permits is no longer limited to 100 climbers per day. 10/17/20