Climbing permits for Mount St. Helens now on sale
MOUNT ST. HELENS - If you're thinking of climbing Mount St. Helens this year, now is the time to get your permit for the 2013 season.
Anyone who wants to go above the volcano's 4,800-foot elevation is required to have one.
The permits can be purchased online starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 1. They cost $22 for the peak season (April 1 through Oct. 31).
Permits are limited to 100 per day for most of the season (from May 15 through Oct. 31) to keep the impact on the mountain to a minimum and protect the natural resources.
What to Expect if You've Never Climbed Mount St. Helens
Who verifies if each and every climber has a permit?
Is there an armed guard stationed on a trail, or what?
What is the penalty for not having a permit?
 @Mipsfer I can't remember exactly where, but, we were checked both times, I think at the base camp.
Bought my 5 passes today. Total of 15 going up in my group! Had the pleasure of hiking to the summit twice last summer. It's an annual trip for us now!
Keep in mind that the PRIVATE non-profit Mount St. Helens Institute rakes in $5 per $22 permit for their personal coffers. $15 goes to the Forest Services, $2 goes to MSHI to maintain the online database/mailing of the permits, and $5 goes to them to use any way they like.Â
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Using www.waybackmachine.com you can see on their website they have previously called this $5 amount a 'donation' (which is hypocrisy since there is no such thing as a mandatory donation!!) though they now call it a 'service fee' -- the service you pay for is their executive director to make $80k and for them to put on $40k worth of events and banquets. Another great example of a PRIVATE organization getting money from the public to access public resources. MSHI has ZERO liability or responsibility for trail safety/upkeep/maintenance/road care/plowing/etc.
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Last fall there was a Katu story about how proud MSHI was that they sold out the entire year's worth of Permits. That's 165 days X 100 permits a day X $5/permit = $82,500
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MSHI and new Executive Director Travis Southworth-Neumeyer are defrauding the public out of money! They haven't even provided their 2011 or 2012 990 Tax Forms.
 @water I think I found a new 'hero' for Chase! :)
 @Eric Peterson Who? I'm the same Water as from pdxhikers...i think there is someone on there named Chase?
 @water If you call $5.00 "raking it in"...You must lead a very boring life...
I would take the $5/day per person per permit and offer to LIVE and walk the Mt St Helens climb trail every day picking up trash and packing out poop.
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I'll post it twice for you but $5 X 100 permits/day X 165 permit/days = $82,500/year. Yes, they could pay me that to work there full time during the climbing season and maintain the 'trail' (haha..it is covered in snow half the year)
 @mikeyb123  @water some pretty good numbers they bring in but climbing permits are only small percentage at 96k, http://mshinstitute.org/images/pdf/MSHI-annual-report-2011-WEB.pdf
 @water Damn all those people who don't want to work for free!!!! I hate myself!
 @mikeyb123 If I want to skin up to top of Mt St. Helens on June 1st I have no idea what the mount st helens institute employees are doing for me - absolutely jack squat. I have way less issue paying the forest service $15 for the cost of maintaining the roads, the trailhead, stipends for americorp-work crews.
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but I don't need the MSHinstitute to take $5 from me for their PRIVATE non-profit. Private entities should not make money off of citizens accessing public resources.
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I'll post it twice for you but $5 X 100 permits/day X 165 permit/days = $82,500/year.I'm complaining about Mount St. Helens Institute scooping $82grand from the public at large to access public lands.
 @water  @mikeyb123 If you don't pay them Mt. St. Helens will either be outsourced to China or turned into a giant quarry to mine precious ...uh... Why do you hate the Earth? Is it because you're Water?
 @water good on you! keep digging and post the results somewhere. Media loves dirty story
On Belay!
Best time I've found is around June when there's still glissading to be found. Here's a few virtual years of different years and time of year for your viewing pleasure. http://www.fullscreen360.com/mt-st-helens-summit-2011
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Yeah , but please wait until July-August to do your climbing ..
Climbing to the summit of Mt. St. Helens makes you feel like you are in the presence of God. I don't know how else to describe it. I fly people around it for photography flights during the summer and fall, but, standing on the rim of the crater and listening to the mountain is beyond words. It's perpetually changing. A statistic said you could fit the entire human population of earth in the crater and not fill it.
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One time, my friend was videotaping and his hair stood up on end and his camera switched off. If that happens, run like hell down the mountain.
@Playanekes I'm not sure you could fit 7 billion people into the crater...
 @Oregon7812  @Playanekes I don't believe half of that visitor center tourist crap but that's what it said. I fly around the mountain several times each summer and I'd say it's possible. ...especially if you cremate them! :>They had this other exhibit that said not to take ash or rocks from the trail because if Mt. St. Helens wanted you to have them, she would have given them to you. Okeee... I guess that whole dust mask thing didn't happen. Also, it said, don't pick the flowers because it's a fragile ecosystem......and then inside it tells you that the mountain explodes every couple of hundred years and and utterly annihilates the landscape in a blast of supersonic, superhot gas and burying everything in hundreds of feet of 700-degree ash, rock and mud, and how nature always manages to survive. As long as, you know, some kid doesn't step on it.
 @Playanekes  @Oregon7812Â
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Well Helens DID give me ash and rock and I still have it to prove it.
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Oh and it blastsd every couple hundred thousand years not every hundred. had that been the case white people would have seen it at least twice.
$15 goes to the forest service which maintains roads, trails, campground areas, privys.
$5 goes to the Mount St. Helens Institute as a mandatory donation to a 'climbers fund' which has no legal standing or liability for any purpose as far as the process of climbing mt st helens is considered. They skim that off the top from the public.
$2 goes to a servicing company to help with the online transactions and postal mailing of the permits
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Climbing permits aren't the problem, permits for coming down alive are another thing. Also, how will charging $22 for the permit protect the natural resources? Are they gonna bury the money on the mountain? Or will someone actually come out and rake the footprints away? They either need to protect the mountain, or stop trying to make a profit from the natural wonder of Mt St Helens.Â
 @jpk yes they do!
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$5 X 100 permits/day X 165 permit/days = $82,500/year. That is what the PRIVATE non-profit Mt. St. Helens Institute makes off the public each year. But they have no legal responsibility or liability for anything the public at large does on the volcano. They just scoop that up for their events and own development.
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The forest service makes $15 per permit but they also are the entity legally responsible if someone was lawsuit happy, they also maintain the roads and culverts/drainage, the trailheads, the privys, the parking area, the camping spots.
 @jpk Do you pick everything apart that costs money? $22 is cheap! Sometimes you just pay money to have a good time without worrying about where every damn dime goes. Sometimes I like to take the wife out to $100 meals...It's not because I feel like I am getting value, it's for the fun of it.
 @jpk Money makes everything better.. everything
Climbing St. Helens was one of the coolest things I've done.
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Of note though, is that we climbed it in late May during the permit season, and there were probably 200-300 climbers on the mountain that day, way over the 100 permit limit.
@HuskyKMA When I did it, they had someone posted at the boulder field checking permits. I'm sure you could sneak around of course.
 @Oregon7812  @HuskyKMA I wouldn't try to "sneak" to save a measly 22 bucks. I hear the fine is pretty big?
Can you resale them?
 @browntown Yes. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/49/1/Permit_Exchange_Forum
Been there, done that. Awesome experience.
 @peckishpete That looks like it would be a very enjoyable trip. A lot of work though. But looks well worth it. Would take time to get in better shape. And if one does not make it all the way on the first trip, there are always more chances to try.
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 @Just Lookin  @peckishpete One way to condition for it is to practice on the trails in the Gorge during the summer and climb it in August or early September. Multnomah Falls, Beacon Rock, Dog Mountain, etc.  If the weather's crappy, just do Multnomah Falls, come back down, and go back up it again. If that sounds like it sucks too much, well, that's about right. I hated climbing Mt. St. Helens, but when you get to the rim, every step was worth it. Profoundly awesome.
 @Playanekes  @mikeyb123Â
"had no flashlights or water but assured us they knew what they were doing"
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That does not sound too good. Better to have extra and be prepared then to not have something you really need.
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 @mikeyb123  @Just Lookin When we were about 3/4" of the way up, some blonde-headed Dutch-looking kid came jogging up past with no shirt and two bottles of water. Frickin' cloggers. Then we helped along some guys from Indiana who wanted to go hiking and their brother said "Gee, I have an idea." Leather coats, jeans and Nazareth t-shirt sort of attire.On the way DOWN, at, like 4 p.m., we saw some young couple just starting up the boulder field who had never been up it before and had no flashlights or water but assured us they knew what they were doing.
 @Just Lookin Last summer I passed up an 80 year old couple on a "date" and a 7 year old boy with his father. They all made it to the summit after me. You can do anything you put your mind to!
Playanekes,
Thank you for the information, that helps a lot. Yes, those would all be good practice trails for that
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How about permits for walking alone in downtown Portland after midnight on weekends? LOL
 @jpk You guys aren't actually afraid to do that , are you? The only trick to not getting in trouble downtown is to have your pants cinched up properly and to use a little bit of common "street" sense, and to know when to keep your mouth shut. Which, as I'm sure you know, is fundamentally lacking among certain elements of society. In my experience, trouble usually starts with two drunk obnoxious women dragging their boyfriends and exes into it.
I was being sarcastic, but your response seems to indicate that you've had some personal unhappy experiences.
 @jpk SOLD. :-)