Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge — Saturday, Sep. 13, 2025

A perfect day on Loowit! We did a guided climb with the Mt. St. Helens Institute and couldn’t be happier with the experience.

We had absolutely beautiful weather - not too hot, not too cold, just right for the activities of the day.

I took about 4 liters of water and only consumed maybe 3. On a hotter day, I can easily see needing all 4. There was no water or snow melt available on the trail to filter.

People don’t always have nice things to say about the boulder section of this hike, but I actually found it to be fun. I’d recommend cheap gardening gloves for this section as some of those boulders can really cut up your fingers, although my husband survived without gloves by being discriminating about which ones he touched.

The ash section at the top was demoralizing at times as you slide backwards a bit with every step you take, but it didn’t last very long; I also found it easier to do a kind of “duck walk” with my toes turned slightly outward to slide backwards less (I have no mountaineering training and maybe this is not recommended by experts, this is just what worked for me). Hiking poles made it much easier climbing this section, and I definitely needed them on the descent as I slipped and slid through the ash and loose rocks.

It was a pretty busy day on the trail, and we encountered several people who didn’t have permits, didn’t have any water, and/or dangled their feet off the edge of the crater rim at the top. Please don’t be that person!