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!!!