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Trip Report: Day 3 of 8 (Saturday, June 29, 2002)
The whole idea of the mountain not wanting me to climb itself became much more apparent when I woke up this morning. When my eyes decided that they had had enough sleep and my body moved into consciousness, I became aware of a tender throat and sinus area. Every time I have ever had this feeling, it was at the onset of a cold... I was not surprised in the least. Oh, and to add to my joy, it was still cloudy and you couldn't see the upper mountain. Once all of us were up and about, we ate a quick breakfast and decided we should head to Mt. St. Helens, which, according to Saeed's Trip Tick was a 4.5 hour drive away. As we were leaving Paradise, the clouds began to break up a bit and we had some good views of the Tatoosh range and my favorite, Pinnacle Peak. We grabbed some pictures as we headed out and drove the now familiar route from Mt. Rainier National Park to I-5.
We followed some signs to Mt. St. Helens, and stopped at a gas station along the route. I picked up an ample supply of Halls (I HATE the taste of Mentholyptus but I needed something) and hoped that it would stop my sinuses from raging a war. About 20 or so miles from the mountain itself, we saw a sign that said "Entering Blast Area". I had no idea what this meant, but as we passed a huge bridge, an incredible valley opened up with what looked like old debris and a small glacial river. We were so far from the mountain and already seeing the effects of the 1980 eruption. Saeed kept saying how the area had grown back (he was here in 1994). Eventually we reached the Coldwater Creek Visitor Center. And guess what... the mountain was shrouded in clouds. How surprising.
We spent a great deal of time at Coldwater. This area was amazing and it was incredible to imagine the amount of power consumed on May 18, 1980. Two-thirds of a cubic mile of the mountain was in the valley below -- the largest landslide ever recorded in history. Insane, to say the least. We took a trip down to the valley to stand on what used to be the upper mountain. I saw all sorts of rocks, but was somewhat surprised to see Pumice. I thought for sure the rock would have been long gone by wind and water. After a little more exploring, we decided to head on back. The clouds seemed to be thinning, and we all hoped that would mean they were thinning around Rainier itself. So, back in the car for another 4 hour drive. :)
A miracle had occurred when we were gone... the weather had improved about 100%. In fact, the mountain decided to make itself visible to us for a little while when we were around the Kautz Creek and Christine Falls. We snapped some pictures and headed to the Jackson Visitor Center to get a weather update from the Rangers. They confirmed what we thought and Monday & Tuesday were looking *really* good on the mountain. We excitedly got our climbing Permits and headed back to Paradise to pack up our gear. My cold wasn't really improving, and I was placing my odds at actually attempting a summit around 25%. I liked how I spent how much money, trained so hard, waited patiently for the weather and then had a cold jump into the picture.
After a nice meal we finished packing our gear in the hallway at Paradise Inn. We received many inquisitive looks and questions from those guests passing by whether we were going to climb the mountain. I was honestly hoping I could climb the mountain, but I knew that if I attempted to with my cold and had some emergency happen... I didn't want to think about it. I was full of doubt and hope that my condition would improve. I went to sleep like that. Sleep, therefore, was fitful and didn't really happen. But finally, I passed out of the world of consciousness into the land of beautiful summits.
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