Monday, December 29

RIGHTEOUS NATURAL FEATURE OF THE DAY: MT. ST. HELENS

I'm sure many of you have heard of the infamous Mt. St Helens. She is a gigantic volcano in Oregon that erupted extremely violently on May 18, 1980.

When Helens blew she created the largest landslide on record at 70-150 mph and a 5.1 earthquake under the mountain. Twenty-three square miles (1, 314 feet) of debris exploded off the volcano when she erupted, covering nearby areas with 150-600 feet of ash and debris.


This is one of the most famous volcanic explosions in American history.

And guess what? I climbed it 28 years after the eruption.

We packed out lunches and got everything ready in the cold and dark the night before. We layered on as much as we possibly could. I had two pairs of long underwear, jeans, sweatpants, and long wool socks on. Followed by under-armor, a t-shirt, a light hoodie, a fleece jacket and a windbreaker. All topped off with a winter hat and a hood. I was still cold when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. We ate as much as we could because we knew we would need as much stored energy as possible. After breakfast, still in the dark, we huddled in a group and danced to Eye of the Tiger. This got us pumped up for what we knew was ahead of us. Did I mention I had a cold, a UTI and was on antibiotics that made me vomit?

10 mile hike round trip. 2 miles of hiking normally in the tree line. This was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. The cool, crisp morning air and scent of evergreens was more like a dream, a really steep and painful dream. I'm not the most athletic person in the world, so I had some trouble getting used to the elevation change.
When you get out of the tree line you see nothing but gigantic boulders and clouds. At this point in the hike we were already above the clouds. We sat and had a snack with some people we met on the trail and looked out over the sky to see Mt. Hood in the distance. This view was magical. I thought I was on top of the world. It was so beautiful. The view got everyone pumped for the next 2 miles of climbing over boulders that were the size of basketballs to Voltzwagon Beetles.
When the volcano exploded a large amount of boulders flew from the eruption site. These boulders are hell on earth. For the next couple miles we climbed, not hiked, over these huge black rocks. Stopping every 15 min for a break, I literally thought I was going to die. Or at least that my ankles were going to snap in half if I took even the slightest wrong step. The elevation was truly getting to me. It was hard to breath and even harder to keep a good pace. We had a time schedule to turn around and we all feared we wouldn't make it on time. There was no designated trail, only random posts placed every few hundred feet. If you see one you are good. If you don't....well you get the idea. There were giant ice crevasses on the side of our "trail" that dropped only god knows how far. I was slowly and surely losing motivation.
Somehow I made it out of the boulder field and started looking upon the ash field. Imagine climbing uphill in sand. Thats what I did for a mile. By this point I had never been in more pain in my life. I was completely physically and mentally exhausted. My back hurt from my pack carrying all my food and water and my ankles were swollen. I couldn't breath, and I don't even have any kind of breathing problem. I took two step in the ash and fell one step back. I felt like I was moving in slow motion. It literally took me around an hour and a half to climb one mile in the ash. I saw the summit. I saw my friends at the top. And I gave up. I honestly thought I was going to die at that point in my life. I had no motivation. I wanted to spent the extra $100,000 and get flown off the volcano. I'm sure my Mom wouldn't of cared.

Then one of the staff members, Ian, came down from the summit in his kilt and smiling away. You could never piss this man off, even if you tried your absolute hardest. He has the most positive attitude of any person I have ever met. And its not even annoying! I asked him if it was worth the pain to make it to the top. He said it was. And he kicked my ass to the summit. I was moving slower than a turtle but he kept telling me I was doing great. He walkie-talkied down to the base and asked our director if we could have an extension on our turn around time so everyone could summit. She approved.

Finally, after the most painful experience of my life, I summited. My friends greeted me with hugs and smiles and walked me to the edge so I could look over what I just climbed. It was the most spectacular scene I have ever seen. To the right was a huge mountain summit, jagged and broken, covered in snow. In the middle was a gigantic lava dome that slowly rose to the current size over many years. There was still steam coming from it. This is something like what you would see in a movie or on the Discovery Channel. I face planted in the snow. I wanted to die and live forever at the same time. I would love to say that I was enthusiastic and happy at the top. I wasn't. I was pissed off, sick and sore and the thought of having to climb ALL the way back down lingered in my mind. We stayed at the top long enough to eat some food and take some memorable pictures. Then the hike back down started.

Once we reached the tree line I completely broke down. I cried for the rest of the two mile hike. I have no idea what force kept my legs moving or my mind sane. It was probably the thought of the pizza buffet that was soon to be in my midst. It is completely unbelievable how hard you can push yourself to do something. You can accomplish so much more than you can ever imagine. I literally still have no idea how I summited that mountain. All I know is that I did, and a week after we got off the damn thing and I wasn't sore anymore...I looked back and said "It was worth it".
Posted by Rachael at 8:44 AM

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