Yesterday I climbed Mt. St. Helens. It was my first climb with the Mazamas Mountaineering group. For those of you who read about my last glaciated peak summit of Mt. Thielsen, this couldn't have been a more different experience. It was pleasant, one might even dare to say "easy". Except, of course, mountains always exact their revenge: I ended up rolling my right ankle pretty good. But it won't keep me down long. On the plus side, I ended up learning my new favorite word: glissade, v.: to have the most fun ever in the history of ever. Glissade is a mountaineering word for something every 5-year-old knows: if you put plastic on your butt and sit on a snow hill, you will slide down it. And it will be fun. Our mountaineering guide, Greg, showed us how to glissade about half of the 4500 vertical feet we climbed up safely. It unlocked my inner child and was basically the best time I ever had. Sliding down a clean fresh snowbank at 8300 feet is...well, amazing! I can't wait to do it again.
