60 The Mountaineer 
St. Helens as Seen from the Top and Otherwise, 
September 24, 19/0. 
Through the invitation of W. A. Williams of Tower. Wash., 
who has teams, wagons, ete., galore, and with two of the 
“Kelly Clan” of Tacoma, we left Castle Rock for the moun- 
tain September 22 at 8 a. m. and were in camp at Spirit Lake 
at 1 p. m. on the 23rd. 
Mr. Geo. Williams, a forest ranger, young, strong and know- 
ing the mountain like an open book, volunteered to make the 
climb with me just to show the way. Say! I was glad he 
did, for | doubt my having made it alone. In facet both of 
us met with the surprise of our lives in mountain work ere 
the day was over. 
[ had not seen the mountain at close range for two years 
and I had not known the location and general contour would 
have needed an introduction. The erosive wear and tear of 
the glaciers is appalling. It looks like a fleeting, changing 
world, abiding not. Evidently, there is a new shuffle of the 
cards for St. Helens. More hot places are now known than 
ever reported before. The two steam jets were still playing 
like the exhaust of a small engine. You find the hot places 
in the vellow-colored rock. We found two new ones on the 
leo of the boot. 
The ice on the north side was three-fourths of a mile 
higher up than commonly, with the Eastside Glacier like unto 
an immense coarse spider web, broken, torn and awry, each 
separate thread representing a crevasse in depth from a point 
to eighty feet, and any width one wants. Last spring an ava- 
lanche of snow starting near the top cut off and down ten 
acres of timber one mile from the base of the mountain, pass- 
ing over the old snow at a height of eight to twelve feet and 
cutting off trees eighteen inches in diameter like pipe stems. 
A mass of ice and debris now blocks one of the trails for a 
short distance. 
The Climb. 
We left camp at Spirit Lake at 7:30 a. m. for the north 
side. There was a dense fog at the lake and at the base of 
the mountain. Going northwest over a route new to me, 
being higher up the mountain, we hit the lizzard at two-thirds 
of its length up. Then we were above the clouds, they being 
