Hey Ryan, good to see you here too. Seems that I find you everywhere I go on the web!
Yes, I was lucky enough to climb St. Helens once before the eruption, in 1975. Speaking of routes that don't exist, we climbed the Forsyth Glacier and descended the Dog's Head, which had the most outrageous glissade I've ever enjoyed. The day we climbed it was cold and VERY windy, although clear and bright until we were on our way down. The upper part of the route was all covered with ice, so we used crampons for much of the climb. From where we hit the rim to the summit area was directly into the wind, and our heavy old 11mm gold line rope was suspended horizontally between is, and acted like a sail. It was almost harder walking along the nearly flat summit plateau than climbing the cone! On our way back to the descent route, at one point my crampons caught an ice nubbin and the wind sent me sprawling on my tummy. It was so strong that I couldn't stop even though it was only slightly downhill. I finally did a self arrest to get stopped. Two of our party carried downhill skis to the summit, and I can't even imagine how tough that would have been. One of those two was probably the best climber I've ever known personally (although I've met Ed Viesturs), and he was also a great skier. Since the upper mountain was all ice, they side-slipped down to the softer snow, resting at the top of the Dog's Head. When I got down there my strong friend said his leg muscles were numb from the jarring caused by side-slipping on those ice nubbins. I went on down the glissade track (so deep that I couldn't reach the top while sitting in it), then at the bottom looked back up the hill to see the two skiers figure-eighting down the slope. It was an incredible mountain even though it was only 9,677 feet, with several glaciers and the potential for very nasty weather.
It's cool that you obsessed on St. Helens. The first time I saw it after the eruption (I was living in Juneau, AK at the time) was the fall of 1980. As we flew into Portland I was on the left side of the plane, on purpose so I could see the mountain. I still remember the very real sense that there was a huge hole in my gut as I looked at a place I had stood that was no longer there. Incredible! Four of us rented a plane and flew around the mountain, which had just receive a dusting of snow. My two favorite shots from that flight are below. Note that the dome building hadn't gotten underway yet.
Ryan, since you haven't signed the
St. Helens summit register at SummitPost, I'm assuming you haven't climbed it yet. If you ever get out this way and want to climb it, let me know and maybe I could join you!
Bob