Who remembers the Mount St. Helens eruption?

[StealthRabbit]

I prefer the St H pic / view from Windy Ridge (East side)

Best to take a clear weekend and circle the mtn (including Ape Caves). Can be done in one day, but tough during the short daylight hours of winter.

This is a dated site, but has good instructions and overview.
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/t...MtStHelen.html

[Tzaphkiel]

yes, i remember. i was living in Portland at the time, and had family in Portland. conversation was along the lines of "how many inches of ash where you are" sort of like asking friends how much snow fell. i remember hearing someone describe trying to drive out of there (they made it out alive obviously) they could not see the road, they could not see through the windows, they literally had the door open and were hanging their head out the car, holding on with one hand and trying to steer with the other.

i remember visiting the site not long after, when the visitor center was up, and what was most astonishing, was that in all that gray gray gray landscape, like being on the moon, seeing small green plants growing. it was remarkable seeing that.

"Dealing with Portland's share of volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens can be a pain in the neck. It can be a pain to sweep it or wash it off sidewalks, clear clogged gutters and banish heavy ash coatings from parking lots. It can be a pain to wash your car one evening and find it covered with a fresh coat of the gritty stuff the next morning."

it was a novelty that people were wearing face masks due to health concerns (and look at us now wearing face masks)
from article "More Than a Month After Mount St. Helens Erupted, Many Portlanders Resorted to Face Masks That Protected Them From Ingesting Ash"
https://www.wweek.com/archive/2020/0...ingesting-ash/

[pnwguy2]

Yes, interesting that face masks were common in some areas after the eruption, (s) I'm not even sure where most got them. I didn't live in an area that required them. As I posted earlier, I noticed a unique purple sky around Tacoma the days after the eruption. Also noted ashfall in Eastern Washington along I-90 for years and years after the eruption.