Mount St. Helens hiking passes sold out for the summer
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Mount St. Helens has become one of the most popular destinations for hikers in Washington state.
Every $22 permit to climb Mount St. Helens is sold out through mid-September. Reservations for peak summer hiking days began hitting the 100-people daily limit in early spring, The Longview Daily News reported Saturday.
"The day they posted that permits were available, we signed up and got 'em," Brian James, 43, of Thomasville, N.C., said Tuesday from the slopes of the 8,300-foot volcano. "This is such beautiful country here."
James and his 15-year-old son, Thomas, are among the growing number of people climbing the mountain each year. The Mount St. Helens Institute reports that so far 13,934 permits to ascend the volcano have been sold, more than the 13,851 permits issued for all of 2011.
Travis Southworth-Neumeyer, the institute's executive director, has a few theories to explain the surge in climbers to the volcano, which was shortened by about 1,400 feet when it erupted on May 18, 1980, and blew away the old summit.
"It has been kind of a forgotten gem," Southworth-Neumeyer said. "And it's not as commercial as Mount Hood. (Mount St. Helens) is more wild."
The mountain initially was re-opened to climbing in 1987, attracting upward of 16,000 hikers a year. However, it was closed from 2004 to 2008 when the volcano's lava dome became active and started growing.
Southworth-Neumeyer said the number of climbers has been steadily rebounding but that there are no plans to increase the number of permits from 100 a day. A permit system is used to track the number of climbers and prevent overuse and resource damage.
"There is some discussion of establishing a second route on the northeast side near Windy Ridge that could increase capacity a little," Southworth-Neumeyer said.
He said about 25 percent of the climbers are from outside the United States and about 40 percent are from the greater Longview-Vancouver-Portland area. The rest is from the U.S.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
i myself have had it with these kind of things in the backcountry,so like for mount st helens i will be climbing it with no permit ,i will climb it at night be at the top by sunrise and back down were you dont need to have a permit by very early morning
So the passes are pretty much gone, you might still be able to pick one up from a climbers forum, but you can still hike the Loowit 360 without a pass!
What kinda of joke is this??? Most permits are NEVER used!
um?? there only allowing so many people to hike it a year?? could sell more permits?
Funny how our parasitic government has changed our status from citizens to customers in OUR OWN COUNTRY. Everywhere you go they want to take your money. I as a personal protest to thier illegal taxation and restrictions on my right to travel I will NEVER pay thier tax... If I want to climb st.helens, I will, as a free man, as a citizen in my own country, withoput paying thier TAX. $crew the federal government succubus.
I miss the good old days when you could hike anywhere for free. Now you have to pay a "fee" which to me is more like a tax.
 @JLO
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It is a tax. It's a targeted tax. The purpose for it is to have those people who use a service, to pay for its upkeep.
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Trails cause damage. The more they are used, the more damage is caused. And you don't need to pay a fee for each time you hike, a single parking pass will cover you for most trails in Oregon.
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The alternative is to close the property for good and let no one use it. Or we could farm it out to private companies for them to maintain.
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Which do you suppose would be better?
 @Repoman you might actually want to re-think that opinion. Given that the USDA administrates the forest service, and if you pay federal income taxes, part of that money is distributed to help pay for national lands. Maybe we could let people who want to go to war vote on it and pay for those themselves, sort of like a targeted tax?
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Trails do not inherently cause damage. Thats an overly broad, general statement that isn't terribly informed. A properly constructed trail can last for decades depending on the construction and conditions. Not to mention Americorp and trail crews made up of young kids getting paid pennies, not much more than a mere $400/month stipend are the only 'paid' folks who actually fix trails, since many are maintained by volunteer groups.
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Lastly in the case of Mt. St. Helens, the vast majority of the trail is on large volcanic bolders that are not damaged by foot traffic. Above that there is no 'trail' but merely a path in the volcanic grit, sand, and pebbles. Not to mention $5 of the $22 permit fee goes to a private institution for their own use. I think I'd be more than happy to stick with paying my income taxes and skipping the user fees. Interesting that you don't need a forest parking pass in Idaho or montana but you do in Oregon or WA. Somehow those other two western states manage to maintain and have thousands of miles of trails and trailheads without the fees. Totally crazy!
Why dont they just add some dirt to Mt St Helens to bring it back to its original height? Less people would want to climb it as it will be more difficult because of extra 1400 feet of elevation.
 @DirtmanÂ
Well with the name like "Dirtman" I don't think I would need to tell you but that would be A LOT of material.
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Let's see, they say a "Dump Truck" of material pushed up every second in the 2004-08 events and that led to a lift of about 6 feet a day. That would be 8640 dump trucks of material each day.
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1400 feet more would mean ~234 consecutive days of 8640 "trucks" of material. Or 2,021,760 trucks worth.
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Somewhere in the 80,800,000 tones of "dirt".
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Or something like a whole mountain. LOL. That's a LOT of material.
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@Repoman I'm guessing they could not do it in reasonable time like they did with the dirt in "The Great Escape".
It is absolutely wonderful to finally see the real numbers from MSHI!! Everyone should know that the Mount Saint Helens Institute headed by Mr. Southworth-Neumeyer makes $5 off of each permit that goes to their 'climbing stewards' (ALL VOLUNTEER) program. So this year, thats $69,670. Last year it was $69,255. Think about that for a second.
$15 goes to the forest service. $2 goes to the website to process the permits and mail them to you. And $5 goes into their pocket. Previous version of their website called it a 'donation' though they have now changed it to a service fee because everyone knows that a mandatory donation is just a lot of BS!!
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Supposedly this money is to maintain and protect the trail. Two things. 1) it is covered by snow 7-9 months of the year. 2) it is in a National Volcanic Monument (already protected). Also, the forest service is the ONLY organization that has any legal obligations to maintain roads, parking, trails, or any other activity on the Mt. MSHI is a bunch of people who want a private non-profit (ie you absolutely cannot get a clear detailed accounting of how they spend the money they get from the public's climb fees).
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I could go on... Just like everyone to be aware that your tax dollars go to the federal government to create and maintain that volcanic monument, but a private organization is extracting dollars from the public to access public lands you already pay for. Not okay in my book! I get ZERO service from them. But to be 'legal' with federal law I must donate to a private organization. ridiculous!
 @water Awesome man! :)
Some locations use the permit system to control usage of trails. Over the years, some people trash trails, cut down trees and shrubs that are not supposed to be cut. Over use of trails leads to decay and damage. Some areas use the permit system to keep down the number of people on the trails on any given day. There is usually a reason to wantign to take care of wilderness areas, or trails.
Thank you KATU for letting people know. Now more and more people will jump for their permits sooner.
Does this mean that I can't walk around on the trails up there?
 @Mr. Limpet No, you can walk around on the trails that are below the 4800' level. But back on the north side in the eruption impact areas you have to stay on the trails...
 @Mr. Limpet No, this is referring to hiking up to the summit. The numerous trails that pass through Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument are a different story. You do usually need a Northwest Forest Pass for those, but that's just a parking pass, and are limitless.
@Hannah Lee Thank You!
Just what is the fine for not being 'legal' on Mount St. Helens? Kind of a big mountain, hard to police I imagine.
 @theobserver Its probably more harsh than the fine for not being 'legal' in the U.S.
Folks, you want "less commercial than Mt Hood"? Climb Mt Adams! Not only is there absolutely no commercialism, it's even wilder than St Helens! Much more difficult to climb, as well.
@Gravity Works! Mt Adams is enourmous. It is a long haul of a climb via the south side, but not very technical or dangerous. Best done as a 2 day trip. And it is a fabulous ski down!
Breaking "news" KATU ???
Daily limits and sold out permits? Bigfoot doesn't need a permit, why should we? I see his crap all over the place yet no one tickets him. The hypocrisy is killing me.
Permits? Whoops. Guess I was wrong in thinking I could just climb the mountain. Oh well, no harm no foul.
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I wonder if there is a penalty for not getting one? Being the rebel that I am I won't be getting one anytime soon.
 @RalphCramden It's a $500 fine if you're caught without it. There's really only one established trail up to the summit, so no it's not as difficult to police as you'd think. I assume you haven't been up there before? The rangers are pretty active up there in assuring that anyone above a certain point has a permit. Almost every report I hear of people summitting the mountain (which, granted, is a small fraction of the people who actually go up there) there is mention of them running into a ranger at some point.
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So no, I personally wouldn't recommend attempting it without a permit. But, then, I'm not a "rebel" just for the sake of being a rebel or sticking it to the man.
 @Hannah Lee each $22 permit gives $5 to the MSHI as a mandatory donation. use waybackmachine.com to see old version of their website. they now call it a 'service fee'. However MSHI is a private-nonprofit, they made $70,000 off the public to climb a heap of ash and the public gets no direct service for that money spent. The Forest Service is the only organization that has any legal standing to be accountable for hazards, roads, trail, parking, etc.
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 @water Even more reason not to buy the permit.
 @Hannah Lee I come up from the east side which is not well traveled.
 @RalphCramden Ape Canyon way? :)
Lava Canyon is a great little hike too
 @RalphCramden People often sell unused ones on Craigslist if you really want to go legal...
 @oregonchick76 The unfortunate part is that when I want to go, I want to go. I won't schedule a hike weeks in advance so I can't be set to one timetable for a hike.