Mount Saint Helens

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Monitor Ridge route -- July 23, 2006

We started at 5:55 am hoping to beat the heat as it was forecast to be over 95 in town this day.

We hiked at a quick pace through the woods and crossed the Ptarmigan trail in about an hour,

a gain of about 900 feet in two miles distance. We kept to the obvious trail for most of the way

and bouldered when necessary. The weather-gods were kind and provided us with a cooling

breeze for most of the way up. We reached the rim at 10:10 am. There, we broke for lunch

and views and were able to see and hear rock fall on the dome as well as feel a 1.8 magnitude

earthquake. We headed down at 11:00 am and got back to our cars at 2:25 pm. 8.5 hrs RT.

		click on the picture to see a composite photo of the crater