Climbing Mt. Saint Helens

Nick and I are becoming "Peak Baggers."

We added Mt. Saint Helens to our short list of Peaks this past weekend.
I made the summit in 4 hours, what seemed like a local mountain record that day. I was inspired to get back to the car to let Barlow out...

Nick made it down in about 30 minutes, another record of sorts, but only after I had resuscitated his feet from the frozen brink. Frozen toes to my belly. Serious sacrifice, but I love the guy, so hey, it was worth it. He told me I had saved his life when I made it back to the parking lot to find him playing with our puppy and drinking a beer.

Here are some pics from the adventure...

A view from atop the cornice looking out over the crater, steam rises in the foreground and Mt. Adams in the background.

Frozen Footsies.

Nick makes the final paces to the summit with Mt. Hood watching from behind.

Jagged crater edges loom large.

Mt. Adams on the ascent with a purple Sun Dog in the sky.

Spirit lake still full of logs from the blast zone; a slow recovery over the last nearly 3 decades.

Barlow May

So, after years of debate and discussion...Nick and I decided to get a dog. Many people might consider this decision crazy or even reckless, afterall, we are known to go hiking for weeks at a time. But we'd been looking for months on shelter pages for a very specific, non-shedding, poodle mix with little luck. Obviously. When Goldendoodle puppies became available in the Gorge we jumped at the chance. We promised ourselves we would just go look at the puppies and sleep on it before getting one. Of course we couldn't wait to go pick up our little "Number 6" (for the sixth one born to Freida) the next morning.

We wanted to give him a place-based name and had a lot of discussion about local land marks. "Barlow" finally won out and after a car-sick ride home, we brought a new little bundle of joy into our lives...

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