Mount St. Helens Crater Trail May Reopen

I thought people may be in interested in this item, since several on this board are headed West this spring/summer for various destinations. Apparently they're accepting requests for reservations but not acting on them immediately. Rather, if they decide to re-open the Monitor Ridge trail from the north they'll have some of the reservations ready to go. More info on climbing Mt St Helens is here, including an updated application.

Mount St. Helens Crater Trail May Reopen

VANCOUVER, Wash. - A trail to the rim of the Mount St. Helens crater, closed since a slow eruption began in 2004, may reopen this year even as molten rock continues to ooze from the mountain.

The National Forest Service began accepting conditional climbing reservations last month, though no official decision has been made, said Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

"The public is interested," Mulder said. "It's a recreation niche, a learning opportunity, and we want to serve the public well."

The mountain has spewed steam and ash since September 2004 but isn't throwing rocks beyond the crater rim. Inside, molten rock has been oozing at the rate of about a pickup truck load per second into the horseshoe-shaped crater that was created by a deadly 1980 eruption.

"Climbers will be taking on the responsibility for exposing themselves to any risk that they may encounter — temperature extremes to slippery slopes to things that may fall out of the sky," Mulder said.

The climbing season traditionally begins May 15, and the number of permits has been limited to 100 a day, half by reservation and half by lottery.

That's good news as the Monitor Ridge is an awesome route. Kind of like walking uphill on a beach. One and a half steps up slide one down. Plan wisely on this. When the mountain was open you could get your permit by mail. It was one of those apply in February to get a permit for August deals. Like snagging a campsite at Baxter. Even though you had the bloody permit you still had to sign in.

Sign in was at a general store in Cougar Wa well south of the trailhead. You are ( were ) also required to sign out when done. That's fine if you need to drive through Cougar to and from wherever you are staying. It is an hour via hwy 99 and FS road 81 and 830 to the trail head from cougar.

We had rented a cabin for two weeks in Packwood, north of St Helens a two hour drive over that narrow paved rte 25 with no services at all. But what was maddening was after a two hour drive from Packwood we drove past the road to the trailhead and traveled an hour to reach the general store then an hour back to the trailhead only to repeat the process at the end of the day. Not funny those four hours of extra driving. But the feds take that sign in seriously.

The hike itself is slow because of the thick pumace and the four thousand foot climb in the last two miles. Allow plenty of time, and do yourself a favor if not camping near the trail head find a place close to Cougar to stay