the expedition formerly known as JIMI 99

The 1999 Mt St Helens assault was initially planned as a Jimi event. However, schedule conflicts whittled the Jimi participants down to Lee and David. A revised personnel roster was put together to include Lee's climbing buddy Matt and Pines BC people Kim Baker and Mark Conrad. After a short hike in we established a base camp at the tree line (about 4000 feet) late Friday afternoon. We then spent Saturday practicing ice axe belays and goofing around in the snow. Matt arrived like a yeti in a blizzard late Saturday evening just in time for dinner (yes, it was snowing--it was dinner time!--and the wind was blowing a pretty steady gale.

aerial view of Mt St Helens from the south east looking northwest into the summit crater, taken on Portland OR-Spokane WA flight 4/11/99 (click on image to see full-size aerial image)

Then we set out for the summit on Sun morning at 3:30 am.--an "alpine ascent" timetable. The ascent was rather slow owing to the consistently deep powder--so much that two parties of X-country skiers and snowshoers passed us up. But we made the summit right around noon, in time for an enjoyable lunch as the sun began to come out. Then, despite the rather deep powder, we were able to glissade down a substantial part of the mountain. ("Glissade" is fancy French/mountaineer-speak for "slide down the mountain on your behind.")

Click on images to see full-size jpg files.

1. rest stop at the Columbia Gorge near Vantage WA	2. packing up at the Marble Mount Sno-Park	3. up the ski trail to base camp
4. Lee leads in fresh snow	5. a break in the summit clouds gives us a view to the top as we climb	6. our bird mascot/beggar first shows up
7. up a ridge in deep powder	8. our bird mascot/beggar adopts Lee as a perching post	9. everyone stops a moment on the last part of the climb to base camp
10. Mark's grinning because he's warm despite the ~20-degree temp and high winds (he's in the tent!)	11. view north of the campsite and up the mountain	12. view south of the campsite toward the trailhead and the valley
13. Kim prepares to slide down our snow chute to practice ice axe belays	14. Kim leaps off a small (~20-foot) snow cornice	15. Lee takes a dramatic dive off the snow cornice
16. David snowballs off the snow cornice	17. back to base camp	18. somewhat nice weather for a moment as the snow and overcast breaks
19. another blizzard starts to kick up (since it's dinner time)	20. a view up the mountain from a high ridge just downhill from base camp	21. view west across the south side of the mountain from the ridge south of base camp
22. early morning rest stop on the summit ascent (we could see city lights off to the SW--Vancouver WA?)	23. David early in the morning at the top of a rocky outcropping--onward up the snow fields!	24. early sunrise glow on a ridge to the east of our climbing route
25. the trail of climbers heads up!	26. misting clouds in the valley below us to the south	27. Lee, Matt, and Mark were the kick-stepping maniacs establishing the route
28. mid-morning rest stop--you can't tell, but the wind was wicked!	29. victorious lunch break--we're on the summit!	30. David at the summit--note the sheer drop over my shoulder to the left, and the inside of the crater
31. David tries to glissade a steep but powdery stretch	32. view back up the slope to groups of climbers descending on glissade paths	33. downslope toward camp
34. everyone basks in the sun (temporary!) back at camp	35. base camp with a clear moment showing the whole mountain	36. packing up and moving out!
	37. David's cheerleading squad (Sophia, Susan, and Leslie) welcomes him back home

While St. Helens 1999 was not a Jimi Experience, it was close enough for the neophytes. Cool mountain!