Follow their progress

[Dave McClung]

Dennis, Susan and Vincent are climbing Mt. St. Helens today. If you are interested, you can follow their progress.

For some reason the link from here doesn't work. Try this:

http://www.davemcclung.com

Then click on the "Spot" link.


For best viewing click on the "Hybrid" link and zoom in to the second closest view.

Dennis is my son. Susan is his wife and Vincent is my grandson.

[Jon Twitchell]

Dave,

that's pretty cool... I was telling my brother about your SPOT beacon the other day he'll be interested to see a working example of it.

[Dave McClung]

Dennis, Susan and Vincent are climbing Mt. St. Helens today. If you are interested, you can follow their progress.

For some reason the link from here doesn't work. Try this:

http://www.davemcclung.com

Then click on the "Spot" link.


For best viewing click on the "Hybrid" link and zoom in to the second closest view.

Dennis is my son. Susan is his wife and Vincent is my grandson.

The SPOT Personal Messenger sends out a signal every 10 minutes, but for some reason I don't understand, the signal isn't always received. I suspect it is because of the position of the satellite in relationship to the unit. There are no trees where they are hiking, but there are a lot of very large rocks. When the report is missed, Denny was probably behind a rock.


The SPOT has 4 buttons:

1. ON/Off

2. Tracking -- This button can also be used to send "I'm OK" message.

3. Help -- Dennis has this one programed to send us a message that he will be delayed for some resaon that isn't an emergency.

4. 911 -- If this button is pushed, emergency responders from that area will be notified. Since Mt. St. Helens is a National Monument, I assume it would be the National Park Service that would be notified.

[David Parker]

That is really impressive. Might check into that before my next Harley trip.

[Michael B. Ross]

Dave, that is as cool as it gets! Thanks for sharing it with us. I love that type of "stuff."

Also, I have attached two photos of Mt St. Helens I took in May.

Dennis, Susan and Vincent are climbing Mt. St. Helens today. If you are interested, you can follow their progress.

For some reason the link from here doesn't work. Try this:

http://www.davemcclung.com

Then click on the "Spot" link.


For best viewing click on the "Hybrid" link and zoom in to the second closest view.

Dennis is my son. Susan is his wife and Vincent is my grandson.

[Hans Deventer]

Dennis is my son. Susan is his wife

I remember the days that you would not have needed to introduce them :basic04

[Dave McClung]

For those who are wondering about the terrain, now at 12:45 pm, they are passing through the fields of broken rocks. Here is a link to photos that show the route they are taking.

http://www.davemcclung.com/album/thumbnails.php?album=44&page=1

Around 2 p.m. they should be reaching the lighter colored area. That is ash. It is a lot like beach sand. When they reach the ash, their rate of progress will probably slow.

At the cuttent time, they are hiking in the clouds. You can check the web cam here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

From our home, it looks like the clouds are burning off. I am hopeful that by the time they reach the top the clouds will be gone.

You can see from report #16, that they were at 12:30 p.m. at 6,300 feet on the mountain. They are climbing to 8,200' As a "rule of thumb", I climb about 500 feet an hour. Based on that calculation, they will reach the peak between 4 and 4:30.

[Dave McClung]

For those who are wondering about the terrain, now at 12:45 pm, they are passing through the fields of broken rocks. Here is a link to photos that show the route they are taking.

http://www.davemcclung.com/album/thumbnails.php?album=44&page=1

Around 2 p.m. they should be reaching the lighter colored area. That is ash. It is a lot like beach sand. When they reach the ash, their rate of progress will probably slow.

At the cuttent time, they are hiking in the clouds. You can check the web cam here:

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

From our home, it looks like the clouds are burning off. I am hopeful that by the time they reach the top the clouds will be gone.

You can see from report #16, that they were at 12:30 p.m. at 6,300 feet on the mountain. They are climbing to 8,200' As a "rule of thumb", I climb about 500 feet an hour. Based on that calculation, they will reach the peak between 4 and 4:30.

Well, they didn't make it to the top. They turned around at with 500 feet left to go. There are still clouds on the peak, so it is possible that when they got above the rock fields, they were not confident that they could find the route. We won't know the reason they turned back until they get back into cell phone range.

We know they are ok because they sent a "We are ok" message on the SPOT at the point they turned around.

[Dave McClung]

Well, they didn't make it to the top. They turned around at with 500 feet left to go. There are still clouds on the peak, so it is possible that when they got above the rock fields, they were not confident that they could find the route. We won't know the reason they turned back until they get back into cell phone range.

We know they are ok because they sent a "We are ok" message on the SPOT at the point they turned around.

Denny, Susan and Vincent made it home before midnight. They explained that the reason they turned around before reaching the peak was wind. The clouds lifted enough that they caught sight of the peak which was only 500 feet above them, but the winds picked up to more than 65 miles per hour (their estimate). Up there a gust of wind could blow a person off of the ridge.

[Cindi Hammons]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing their experience with us. I loved the Spot system, and it was so much fun to show it to our girls. They were amazed that we knew someone who was actually climbing the volcano as we watched. I'm sorry they were unable to reach the top, but I'm also glad they weren't swept into the "cauldron!" That would not have been a good thing. :)

[Dave McClung]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing their experience with us. I loved the Spot system, and it was so much fun to show it to our girls. They were amazed that we knew someone who was actually climbing the volcano as we watched. I'm sorry they were unable to reach the top, but I'm also glad they weren't swept into the "cauldron!" That would not have been a good thing. :)

The high winds are not that unusual. The first time I climbed Mt. St. Helens, we encountered high winds. We made our way to the top, but probably shouldn't have. Dennis did the right thing by turning around.

[Roland Hearn]

I visited Mt St Helens in 1989. It was probably the most profound impact I have ever experienced by simply viewing nature. I have no idea how much has grown up since then but to see the devastation that had a near precision to it would almost take your breath away.

[Dave McClung]

I visited Mt St Helens in 1989. It was probably the most profound impact I have ever experienced by simply viewing nature. I have no idea how much has grown up since then but to see the devastation that had a near precision to it would almost take your breath away.

There has been some recovery, but it is probably 98% the same as when you saw it. Mt. St. Helens is growing again, but it won't reach its former size in our life-times.

[Roland Hearn]

There has been some recovery, but it is probably 98% the same as when you saw it. Mt. St. Helens is growing again, but it won't reach its former size in our life-times.

I guess I was thinking mainly about the vegetation regrowth. I remember coming around a corner and seeing pine trees cut off at varying levels depending on their exposure like God had walked through with a machete. In other places it was just acres of forest that was leveled to the ground. I'm sure there must have been some regrowth over the last 20 years. I would be interested to go back sometime and see what has happened.

[Dave McClung]

I guess I was thinking mainly about the vegetation regrowth. I remember coming around a corner and seeing pine trees cut off at varying levels depending on their exposure like God had walked through with a machete. In other places it was just acres of forest that was leveled to the ground. I'm sure there must have been some regrowth over the last 20 years. I would be interested to go back sometime and see what has happened.

Yes, I understood that you were speaking of vegitation. The blast area is just starting to revegitate. The heat of the blast was so great that the top soil was sterilized. The nutrients needed to revegetate will have to build up from scratch. Plants like lupins are beginning to grow. They get most of their nutrition from the air and put nitrogen back into the soil. It will many life-times for the blast area to return to its prior state.

If you visited Spirit Lake, you saw a forest of floating trees. All of those trees are still there, but they have been blown around the lake enough that they are now just battered logs. Some of them are beginning to sink.

In the blast zone, you saw millions of trees lying on the ground. After the blast, the government hired a large forestry company to try to salvage some of the timber. They removed very little, because they found the wood was too brittle to make lumber. The blast sucked all of the oxygen and moisture out of the trees. They are probably more weathered than when you saw them, but they are still there.

You may have seen the "miner's car." Each year it seems more rusty and battered, but it is still there. The miners, all the upholstry and plastic evaporated, but the metal parts of the car are still there.

[Roland Hearn]

Wow, that is exactly the kind of information I was interested in. Thanks Dave. That is amazing. I thought after 20 years surely the vegetation would have started to return, I thought you were originally talking about the mountain slowly rebuilding itself.

In one day we did a lightning trip to Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens. It was truly an awe inspiring day and a reflection of God's wonderful world. I'm glad we did Mount Hood first because it was really impressive but if we did it last I don't think it would have had the same impact, although I did get the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted before or since at the restaurant at Mt Hood.

[Dave McClung]

Wow, that is exactly the kind of information I was interested in. Thanks Dave. That is amazing. I thought after 20 years surely the vegetation would have started to return, I thought you were originally talking about the mountain slowly rebuilding itself.

In one day we did a lightning trip to Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens. It was truly an awe inspiring day and a reflection of God's wonderful world. I'm glad we did Mount Hood first because it was really impressive but if we did it last I don't think it would have had the same impact, although I did get the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted before or since at the restaurant at Mt Hood.

Wow. That was one busy day. On a clear day one can see all three, but to visit all three usually takes more than a day.

[Roland Hearn]

We set out early in the morning and got home about 11 that night. It was summer so there was plenty of day light. Emmy was seven months pregnant and decided to wait for us to return to Portland, I did the trip with my folks. by the time we got back she was ready to call the police because when we set out in the morning we just weren't sure what we were going to do.

I think I just like full days when we are traveling like the day, we went from Dordrecht to London for a two hour visit with Ian, or the time my mate and I did the trip from Brisbane to Perth, basically New York to LA, in two and a half days. I'm always up for a challenge.

[Dave McClung]

We set out early in the morning and got home about 11 that night. It was summer so there was plenty of day light. Emmy was seven months pregnant and decided to wait for us to return to Portland, I did the trip with my folks. by the time we got back she was ready to call the police because when we set out in the morning we just weren't sure what we were going to do.

I think I just like full days when we are traveling like the day, we went from Dordrecht to London for a two hour visit with Ian, or the time my mate and I did the trip from Brisbane to Perth, basically New York to LA, in two and a half days. I'm always up for a challenge.

Come back when you have time and I will show you a lot more. The NW U.S. has a lot to see. The largest tree in the world is less than 2 hours from Gig Harbor.

[Roland Hearn]

Dave, I would love to come to Gig Harbor at some point. Just between you and me the north west is my favorite part of the US. That is of the parts I've been to.