March 2020 I joined a group of local climbers on my first Mount Saint Helens summit trip. Later that year in early October I went back to see what climbing the mountain was like in no-snow conditions. In this post I’m going to take look back on both trips and photos.

The standard winter route, Worm Flows Route, starts at Marble Mtn. Sno-Park. In late March (a few days before permits were cancelled due to COVID) our feet were on snow from the first step off the parking lot. The standard summer route, Monitor Ridge, starts at Climbers’ Bivouac and is 1 mile shorter in distance both ways.

Each climbing party signs in and out in a notebook at Climbers’ Bivouac trailhead.

The lowest portion of the winter trail in the forest. On the right, the late Dave Freepons had organized the group and had been my contact point for joining.

It had been a while since I had snow camped. I was looking forward to it, but also knew I was going to be testing the warmth limits of my current overnight gear. I was glad that I had decided last minute to strap on a yoga mat in addition to my old Therma-rest pad for some extra insolation between myself and the snow.

I don’t remember exactly what time was planned for the group to head up from our camp, but I remember being up and having plenty of time to take long exposure photos while the group assembled and ate breakfast. There was 8 of us in our group at camp, but it was decided that 4 of us would start together for the climb. We left camp sometime between 4:30 and 5:00am.

Dave Freepons organized the March trip. It was an honor to hike with and get to know him, be it only for the two day trip. Four months later Dave passed on Mount Jefferson. May he rest in peace and continue climbing in the clouds.

3:55am looking up from our camp. Headlamps from the early start climbers make a light trail over this 4.5 minute exposure

Worm Flows, March. We camped just below the permit zone.

Flash forward to early October, since I had obtained a climbing permit I didn’t want it to go to waist. I planned for a single day solo trip and to be on the summit for sunset. With sunset being at 6:30pm, I figured starting before 12:30pm from the car would give me plenty time to beat the sundown to the top.
This was a completely different experience from March, almost a different mountain, at least for the climbing terrain.

Wood posts help mark the route when it would otherwise be hard to find

April 1st is the start of the permit season. In my experience this means that late March the mountain can be quite crowded as there is no limit on daily climbers. Currently Recreation.gov says that permits are limited to 350 person reservations per day from April 1st to May 14th, and limited to 110 person reservations per day May 15th to October 31st. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that I saw much more than 350 people on this March date in the morning alone.

In October, on the other hand, my experience was much the opposite. On the lower trail in the afternoon I saw a good amount of people coming down the mountain, but by the time I was nearing the top I was the only person in sight.

You’d think I was staying overnight with that pack on, but it was mostly camera gear and the hiking essentials

Left: Hannah. Right: Ice formations nearing the rim

Me, Hannah Rose, Dave Freepons, and Burke Neuman.

Looking down into the crater at the lava dome, October

Climbers, Skiiers, and snowboarders hanging out where the route hits the rim

Mount Rainier over Spirit Lake from Mt St Helens

Wide shot from the summit looking northeast

Zoomed in on the Goat Rocks range top center over Dogs Head (eastern edge of Saint Helen’s rim)

Heading back from the summit to the Worm Flows route

On my solo trip in the dark on the way down, I came across one group of 3 hikers not too far above the treeline. With just a quick chat I found out that they were missing two people in their group. They were set on trying to work their way down to somewhere with reception so they could call search and rescue. The last they had seen a sign of the couple was an hour earlier, they saw their headlamps above them heading off east away from the route.
I was pretty sure that there was very low chance of getting reception below this point, or at the trailhead. They would likely have to drive to the nearest town just to get reception. That could take them multiple hours, and search and rescue would likely not respond until morning. Of course I was going to head up southeast from there to at least see if I could spot them.

Sure enough, a half mile up the mountain to the SSE I saw a faint light. The husband and wife had been heading east off Monitor Ridge down into and just across the Swift Creek drainage. I helped the couple get down to the established trail. A few days later they left me this nice review:

”Anyone can see from Ross’ photos that he is a very talented photographer, as well as an accomplished hiker in order to reach those gorgeous locations. On top of that, he is also our rescuer! Ross was thankfully the person my sister in law found entering the forest trail on Mount St Helens on Tuesday, and even though it was already late into the night, he agreed to go back up and find us. Halfway down the mountain my legs failed from full on lactic acidosis and I could no longer move or support my weight from the waist down! Ross found us and guided us back to the trail while basically supporting half my weight the entire time (along with my husband). He spent hours helping us, well into the morning. My point is, if Ross is that dedicated and patient for two TOTAL strangers, I can’t imagine how amazing he would be as a hired photographer, which is his chosen passion!”

Jeff Ortman playing banjo at McClellan Overlook

Mount Saint Helens is an iconic mountain in many ways. It’s 1980 eruption shocked North America with ashes over 600 miles away, the largest recorded debris avalance in history, and magma flow destroying 230 square miles of vegetation and buildings. The view of the crater left on the north side of the mountain shows proof of this event that happened over 40 years ago.

Today the mountain remains a very popular climbing destination. Of Washington’s five stratovolcano mountains, Mt St Helens is reasonably the easiest climb. The mountain regularly sees a range of beginner to veteran mountaineers bidding for it’s summit. Read more about Mount Saint Helens on it’s wiki page.

Here’s a few photos of the north side of Saint Helens just days before my October summit.

“Loowit and Spirit” sunrise October 2020

Zoomed in on the crater from the north. Mountain goats on the foreground peak.

Hike with Ross

Interested in having me document your hiking trip? Curious to have me take you to a mountain top view for portrait photography?
You can check out my Airbnb Experience listing, read reviews there, or send me an email to chat.

Mt Saint Helens Summit, 2 trips in 2020

Hike with Ross

rossjamesphoto
antonahillphoto