Mt St Helens

Getting there

Set your GPS to the Climbers Bivuoac Trailhead. Here you will find ample parking - however the distance from where you park to the trail head will be determined by how early you arrive.

Route/Trail notes

The walk starts off easy enough - along a well marked undulating forest path that gently ascends to the boulder field. The boulder field is when the gradient changes drastically and you will begin your ascent. The path has tall markers guiding the way which should prevent you going off-course. As you get higher the boulders get larger and eventually you will required to do some basic scrambling to get to the beginning of the scree field. The scree field is the steepest section of the walk and involves walking up a steep slope on loose volcanic rocks. It is quite easy to lose your footing on this stretch and hiking poles can come in very handy. Reaching the rim of the crater you will turn left and have around a 20-30min walk to the summit. This part involves steep ascents and descents and walking over small sections of ice - be cautious not to walk too close to the edge of the rim when walking on ice - people have died when the ice has given away leading to a long fall into the crater. There are great photo opportunities from the start of the boulder field all the way to the summit, but the best photos are from the rim. Return via the same path.

Permits/Costs

Between April the 1st and October the 31st you will need to purchase a permit which is $20 USD. These go on sale at midnight on the 1st of the preceeding month. For example - If you want a permit for the 15th of July, you will need to purchase the permit at 0000 (Washington time) on June 1st. There are only 110 permits issued per day so you either need to get in early, or wait for someone else to cancel.

Other References

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/washington/mount-saint-helens-summit-via-ptarmigan-trail?mobileMap=false&ref=sidebar-static-map&u=m

GPS Tracks

No GPS available for this walk yet.

Comments

This walk is very similar to the Mt Taranaki summit climb - maybe not quite as difficult. Online people say the walk takes between 7 and 12 hours with others saying up to 14 and the world record being around 2.5hrs. I took around 7hrs return and I felt I wasn't going at a overly fast rate, but I also didn't stop for any breaks. I missed the window for booking a permit so ended up having to refresh the St Helens permit page for a couple of weeks until I was eventually able to snag a cancelled permit. I really enjoyed the walk, I started early - 4:15am which I think for the time of the year was a good starting time. You start in the dark but by the time the sun is rising you are just reaching the boulder field. This allows you to do the ascent outside the heat of the middle of the day which will considerably aid your rate of climb. It does get very hot in summer and can understand how people would run out of water climbing it. The views from the top were unreal, you can really capture the scale of the eruption by seeing just how much of the mountain was blown away. Definitely check out the youtube video showing the eruption before you go!
Vonsnrub on 22 Jul, 2024