Mission Project

By Matthew Smith

It may not be as exclusive as Rainier or Everest, but it's the obstacles that we encountered on our trek to the summit of Mount St. Helens that makes this an everlasting memory.

We started our strategy of climbing St. Helens in mid February of '07. Though this would be a cake walk compared to our other climbs, we still prepared like we always did. (GPS, water, food, locator, etc.) Our first trip wrapped up before we even made it to the mountain. One of many the earthquakes at St. Helens brought down boulders the size of VW Bugs across the road and blocked the rest of our trip. We waited a week only to return to trees across the road from a windstorm the day prior. Finally, on our third attempt we made it onto the mountain. It was a clear day starting off at 4k feet. We decided to break at a cave we found at 6500 feet to get some food in our bodies. Suddenly, with our JetBoil screaming, the weather took a turn for the worse. We went from seeing the sun to seeing the blinding white of a snow squall. To make things worse, we were on the worm flow ridge which enhanced the wind by at least 20mph. We decided to call it a day and head back down to the tree line for protection.

This shows that the weather forecasts are never accurate because we experienced the same situation in our next 3 trips. Winds in excess of 60mph, complete whiteout, and relying solely on GPS to get back. And it always happened while we were resting in that cave. The cave of wrath.

Finally, 3 months after our initial summit attempt we made it to the top. A beautiful clear day that stayed that way. It was the non technical climb we had expected all along. But to get there, we were shown some of St. Helens' wrath. The mountain is alive. You can feel it, and when you're at the top you can hear it. A noise like none other. But like I tell my fellow climbers, it may be a walk in the park, but you have to stand at the edge of that crater just once and feel the awesome forces going on beneath you.

To conclude this story I must begin another. When I was a small child growing up in Ohio, I was intrigued by the eruption of Mount St. Helens. I had always told my mother, "Mom, someday I'm going to go there. Someday I'll experience what pictures can't tell me". Well mom, here I am... at the top!!!

By Roy Miller

Several months ago a really good friend of mine laid out this plan to take his then 12-year-old son through a year of mentoring to help bring him into adulthood. He asked several of his friends from Roseville to join in the journey and then he also wanted me to be apart. The idea was to take his son through a "Rite of Passage." I was honored to be apart and a bit humbled, what could I possibly offer from Boise, Idaho.

My idea was to take Greg and Clint on a climbing trip to spearhead the year and then I would talk with Clint once a month give him stuff to chew on and then we would cap the year with a big trip, something that would really push Clint. We came up with Castle Crags to kick the year off. I climbed the Cosmic Wall several years ago with my brother and I thought it would offer a do-able challenge. The whole Shasta area is very special to Greg's family. Their family has hunted there for generations and they still spend a ton of time up there, so we thought it would be cool for Clint to be able to point out the climb he did to his whole family on the next hunting trip.

The plan was hatched and I left for Castle Crags on a Thursday after work. I was so excited to see old friends the 9-hour drive flew by. I rolled into the campground at 3:30 on Friday morning threw down a pad and got a couple hours of sleep. I was set to meet the guys at 8:00 AM.

Friday was great we spent the day hanging out watching Clint fish and just reconnected after almost a year of not seeing each other. The day was filled with conversations on what it truly meant to be a man, and Clint's current perspective on man-hood and what he hoped to get out of the year of mentoring. I wonder what would happen if more fathers would take a serious as Greg is their responsibility to help shape their sons out look on man-hood. I just wonder. Friday night was filled with great food and prepping for the next days climb. Clint was excited and ready to go. Up until this point he had only be to the gym and a couple of days of top roping. Greg is a solid climber, but this was going to be his longest multi-pitch, so he was equally excited.

Saturday was perfect the weather was great, temps were cool ad we got an early start. The hike in is pretty mellow maybe 3.2 miles and we dispatched that in just over and hour. The climb was great. 6 pitches of great rock and some really good belay stations. There was a party in front us, which really worked out. It kept us from rushing and we hung out and each station and just enjoyed being on the rock. The climbing went quick not a lot of pro on the climb but it is only 5.6 so no problem. The summit was perfect we had it to our selves and spent maybe an hour just taking it all in and listen to Clint talk about how much he loved this and if we could do another climb on the way back to camp. We created a monster and he was loving it. The decent involves two raps off of the back. Clint had never rapped before so I rapped down first and had another line set up so I could lower him from below. On the Second rap Clint wanted to rap and not be lowered so his dad rapped o ff and gave him a fireman's belay.

The weekend was great; Clint's year is in full swing and is now dreaming of his next adventure, he's leaning towards the Tetons or maybe Shasta.

As always your gear and the innovation behind it allow ordinary people to accomplish the amazing. Keep up the great work!