Climbing Mt. St. Helens

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:59:59 -800

Months ago, Cheryl and Eliza bought climbing passes for Mt. St. Helens on the
fourth of July, and told the rest of us that they were planning a little
climbing party. Several more people followed suit, and the result was a
six-person climbing party for the fourth! After a month's worth of training
hikes in the Gorge (Dog Mountain, Ruckel Ridge, Devil's Rest, and not
Mt. Defiance) and some crash courses in map reading, compass use, and GPS
operation, we were more or less ready to go! The weather report said that
the day we picked was a good one, and the climb reports from the previous
weekend indicated that there would be no serious problems posed by the
mountain, aside from the mountain itself.