Mount St. Helens trail to the rim of the crater may reopen

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A trail to the south rim of the crater of Mount St. Helens, closed since the start of a domebuilding eruption in late September 2004, may be reopened this year, officials say.

No decision has been made, but National Forest Service officials began accepting conditional climbing reservations last month, Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, told The Columbian of Vancouver.

"The public is interested," Mulder said. "It's a recreation niche, a learning opportunity, and we want to serve the public well."

The climbing season traditionally begins on May 15, and the number of permits historically has been limited to 100 a day, half by reservation and half by a daily lottery.

"Climbers will be taking on the responsibility for exposing themselves to any risk that they may encounter," Mulder said, "temperature extremes to slippery slopes to things that may fall out of the sky."

Tom Pierson, a local U.S. Geological Survey geologist, tentatively plans to lead a guided hike arranged through the nonprofit Mount St. Helens Institute to the rim in August.

"It will be great to see the new view and to take pictures to compare," Pierson said.

If the trail is reopened, climbers could get a close-up look at the relatively quiet oozing of molten rock at the rate of about a pickup truck load per second into the gaping horseshoe-shaped crater from the volcano's explosive eruption of May, 18, 1980.

That blast killed 57 people and removed the top 1,300 feet of the once-symmetrical peak. Most of what was blown away was a lava dome built in quieter eruptions like the current one over the previous 400 years.

The trail to the 8,300-foot south rim from Climber Bivouac, as well as other trails above 4,800 feet, have been closed since Sept. 26, 2004, shortly after the most recent volcanic activity began. Officials said they were concerned about the possibility that steam explosions could blast rock out of the crater.

Despite a few big steam and ash spurts, including one that sent a plume towering to an elevation of 36,000 feet, no rocks have been hurled outside the crater.