FAIL

Mt. St. Helens 7200 Feet
Originally uploaded by Keltose

This video basically explains my failed attempt to make it to the top of Mt. St. Helens. For anyone that hasn't done this, it isn't a real technical hike. However, being prepared for colder weather and not rainy/windy weather I just wasn't able to get pass the wind, freezing rain and blowing sand. On a thermometer where a few of us turned back the temperature was 35 degrees, with the wind and rain it made for a chilly hike back down. In our group of 10 only 2 made it to the top. And from who we talked to and saw, only a handful of other climbers made it out of the 300 or so climbers that day. Normally, the forest service only issues 100 permits a day, but the computer glitched and issued 400.

All things considered it was a great hike with beautiful scenery, I am sure on a clear day it would have been gorgeous, but the diverse landscape along the hike was really pretty. I am definitely going to do it again, but with some better outer wear in case of bad weather.

Here are some more pics of the hike and camp out the night before. The Flickr set.