St. Helens

This past Saturday, a few friends and I ventured out into the cold for an expedition up Mt. St. Helens in Washington. The week up to this point had been beautiful. We were hoping the same for Saturday and the weather was not in our favor. We put on our gear for the day and set out from the main lodge/parking lot at 5:45 a.m. Equipped with our headlamps the snow began to fall and didn't stop until we fell below elevation where it rained as we drove home.







The wind and snow never stopped and we had to be aware of our surroundings as we ascended up the narrow ridges. I had ice forming on my eyebrows and our packs were completely snow covered. As we got back down to tree line for a quick respite we commented that it doesn't get better than this.





We had a great time trekking in the snow. We figured that there was at least 6+ inches as we got back to the warm lodge before heading home. According to the GPS we walked close to 10 miles and most of it in snowshoes. We made it 3/4 of the way, but do to weather (low visibility, wind, heavy snow) we didn't want to chance getting lost or the possible risk of an avalanche, so we rescheduled a summit for April. I think I have found a new hobby!