Mount St. Helens, Monitor Ridge

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Technical Information

• Mountain: Mount St. Helens
• Elevation: 8,363ft
• Route: Monitor Ridge
• Length: 4,598ft

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HIKING

Monitor Ridge is probably the easiest volcano route in the PNW. Starting at Climber’s Bivouac, you reach the summit in just four miles! While It’s often overlooked because it doesn’t even register on the YDS, I think the views are well worth it. All you need is some good company and you have yourself a day.

Anyway, I had a Shuksan climb planned later in the week, but I wanted to do something with my girlfriend Alexis before then. We were thinking a big hike, so I suggested Helens. I’d never climbed the summer route and she’d never climbed a mountain, so I figured it was the perfect objective! Another good ol’ C2C for the books.

Heads up, this is a retro report.

MORNING!

Doing Helens C2C meant we got to test out my truck bed sleeping system. It’s a little snug in the regular height topper, but worked pretty well! On the morning of the climb, we crawled out at 3am and got going on breakfast. It wasn’t cold, but it was still crisp enough to make a hot bowl of oats incredibly satisfying. You know what I mean.

Getting on trail around around 4am was perfect timing. we broke treeline just as the sun crested the horizon. Adams was looking GRAND. At this point, the route turned into a rocky, pick your own adventure style hike with wooden posts marking the general direction. I was a little concerned that we were going to get blasted by the sun all day, but the ridge actually does a great job providing morning shade.

In the last quarter mile before the crater rim, the trail turned to ash. While it was a little harder than hiking on solid ground, it wasn’t bad at all. At this point, I checked my watch and noticed we were nearing three hours on trail, so we booked it the rest of the way and made it to the crater rim sub 3hrs! We never had a goal time in mind, but it was fun kicking up the last little bit.

After taking in the view, we decided to go to the true summit, just a quarter mile clockwise around the crater rim. It’s easy enough, but there is one section that could be considered really low class 3 with some loose rock. We actually passed someone who had fallen but luckily only suffered a few scrapes.

SUMMIT

After the short tricky section, the summit was right there. It turned out to be a perfect flat spot for a lunch break, so that’s exactly what we did. I munched on some pre-wrapped cold food section conglomeration, and Alex had a good looking sandwich. The summit would make a pretty wicked campsite honestly. I’ll have to keep that in mind.

After lunch and a few photos, we started back. The descent was quick, and that volcanic ash is really fun to run down! It reminded me of the Pacific City sand dune. What a sick day!