Follow Up to Eruption Day

More than a mountain was set off on May 18th, 1980. Lives were changed.

As the snow melts in the spring or early summer, flowers will now bloom in what was once the devastation zone around Mount St Helens. Time passes and changes happen. 

This week we have been hearing many stories of "where you were" when the mountain blew. For those of us locals over 40, we all have one. 

Our family story for that day wasn't particularly exciting. It was a Sunday morning, the sky was cloudy, one of those white sky days. We went to church, as we did back then. We heard about the eruption on the radio on the way back home, but we couldn't see anything because of the clouds. We turned on the television when we got home, and were shocked. By then the mud flows were raging down the rivers.

But Tom and I were busy. We were hosting a school staff picnic and spent much of the afternoon being good hosts. We would duck into the house when we could to catch updates, but the film footage tended to be a continuous loop.  

However, our kids were parked in front of the TV and were taking it all in. Jill was seven and Jake was five years old. As we followed the developments that summer, with more eruptions, Jake became intrigued with volcanoes. That eruption set the course for his life.

Jake wanted to become a volcanologist. He selected Western Washington University because it was near the sea and the mountains. He got his degree in geophysics. He worked off and on at jobs to keep himself independent, while applying to graduate school. He only wanted the University of Washington or Hawaii, because we wanted to study volcanoes. He didn't get in. Over time he settled for jobs as a surveyor.

There were rough years, but they were highlighted by trips to the mountains. In their mid 20's, in 1999,  he and his sister Jill, who was also now a mountain girl as well as a teacher, climbed their first volcanic peak, Mt Rainier. Here they are on the summit. 

They have both hiked in the mountains and have reached mountain tops ever since.  This is Jake on the summit of Mount Baker, a few years ago, which he climbed with friends.

 A few summers ago he and Jill summited The Brother, one of the rocky peaks in the Olympic Mountains here in Washington. 

Jake has had various jobs over the years, but he finally found the one that fits. He is a surveyor who often finds himself in the wilderness, or at least in the wilds of a mountain lake or a river or stream. He loves it when his "office" looks like this.

 Jill and Jake have climbed the topless Mount St. Helens and looked down into the crater, but there are no photos. Weather conditions allowed for no lingering. Now 47 and 45, those kids of 40 years ago are still in love with mountains. 

Edit: I have been corrected. Jill just added this photo to my Facebook post. There were photos from the rim of Mt St Helens. I misremembered. Sure glad to have kids who can keep me on my toes. :-)

She also posted this:

Volcanoes we’ve done together: St. Helens 1999, Adams (1999, 2014), Rainier 1999, Middle Sister 2018.

Many more mountain trips done together and separate.

The volcanoes are more special.