Kyle Meyer went hiking June 9, 2011 7 miles 5,500 feet gained
Jon, Shane, Kevin, & I took Thursday off to climb Mt. Saint Helens. We picked up our permits right at 6am, and started hiking at 7:10 after a casual preparation in the parking lot at Marble Mountain Snopark. The weather turned out perfect—mostly blue skies with a random assortment of lower clouds to add interest to the views. We took only one real break at roughly 5300', and then pushed on to make the summit by 11:45.
It was so beautiful on the summit, sunny and windless, that we hung out for over an hour eating and basking. I was the only one who carried up a sliding device—my neglected snowboard—and was incredibly excited to start the descent at around 1:15. The corn snow was absolutely perfect for snowboarding, and I had an incredible amount of fun riding next to friends glissading and making huge turns in the untouched snow. I was able to ride down the whole mountain except for the last three quarters of a mile to the lot.
We all made it back to the car by about 3:30. Awesome first trip up Saint Helens.
