Gift to

crowned summit, making
us fee l un easy w ith no
knowledge of the volc ano's
acti vity. On one of those
f oggy da ys, Ty W7WFP
cl imbed on a stump with his
hand-held Icom 215 and
ca lled Russ K7SUX, RACES
Radio Officer for Clark
County . (He was checking
our low-power hal f-W att
communications of a standby
rig.) M eanw hile, I wa lked
amo ng the log gin g slash
admiring the fr agil e avalanche
lilies blooming in
the harsh w inds and sleet
and snow that occas io nally
whitened the log ju m bles
and low f ir trees.
O n Friday, M ay 16th,
Channel Six TV parked their
van next to ours, doing a
story on loggers in the
Toutle. That afternoon we
watched large hel icopters
urgentl y fe rr ying eq uipment
from various camps in
the doo med South Fork of
the Toutle Rive r Canyo n.
Satu rday, May 1 7 th ,
dawned in a blaze of scarlet,
bu rni ng away the last
shred of fog and pro viding
excellent v isibi l ity . The
once dazzling white mounta
in had bee n dull ed by
purpl e-grey ash f lows, giving
it a surprisingly barren
appearance. On t he northwest
side, the bu lge appeared
men acingl y as a
large wa rp on the left skyli
ne. Otherwise the peak retained
its nearly symm etrica
l shape. It was easy to retrace
my oid climbing route
of many years ago wi th everything
50 seemingly quiet
and bright and eve ry feature
show ing on the west
fa ce.
That da y the seismic. report
ca me in l at e bu t
seemed routi ne. O riginating
from the U niversity of
W ashing ton, it had been relayed
da ily by Doro thy
WB70BB in Seatt le. (O nly
harmonic tremors over 4
we re repo rted, which was
usually about ten a day.)
For aw hile, a heli cop ter carryin
g geolo gists perched on
th e c rater rim it sel f. AI
K7KNZ cal led ask ing about
ava lanches in the Toutle,
but all we saw were a few
bright steam plum es high
up.
By late afternoon, another
volca no-watcher, Gerald
(Jerry ) Mart in W6TQ F,
drove his motorhome to a
lo cat io n near Co ldwater
Peak, seven mil es northnorthwe
st of the mountain
and ten and one-half miles
north-north east of us. That
eve ning Bob K7UPT and
friends came up with supplies,
stayi ng fo r a potluck
dinner. (Bob had checked
out the 5700 Road along the
South For k of the Tou tle
River as a possible escape
route for us.) It was a perf
e c t e v ening a nd w e
laughed at Bob' s shoveling
up a load of ash-covered
snow to ta ke home. Later,
over two meters, we had a
limited chance to get acquainte
d w it h Jerry before
the f atefu l day arri ved . The
day closed w ith t he peak
lo oming high into a starsprink
led sky, appa rently at
peace.
A li ght overcast repl aced
the flaw less skies of Saturda
y, bu t the dawn wa s
colorf ul with M t. Raini er in
full view . Jerry ' s cheery
" C o o d m orn in g l " had
greeted us t his ca lm Sunda
y, May 18th. It was
peaceful and w indless with
the tem perature at 47 degrees
F. Jerry and Ty di s­
cussed two steam vents
high up on the north-northwest
sky line just und er the
crate r rim . Two of the
plumes were whit e and had
been seen Saturday, but a
new one appea red ta n or
du st-covered and drifted
across the Wishbone C lacier.
From his viewpoint,
Jerry could pinp oint its location.
He was just commenting
on thi s wh en Ty
fe lt the eart hqu ake that unba
lanced the delicat e equilibrium
in t he area of the
bulge . Jerr y felt it also. O utside
our van I was sitt ing in
a folding chair sketching
th e mountain; I d id not feel
Ty W7WFP and Marianna W7 W FO with their Dodge " Van
C o. "
it. (Later reports confirmed
th e quake at magnitude 5.0,
the stron gest since the
moun tain came alive on
March 27th.)
Less than one minute
after the jolt, the volc ano
sent up i ts f irs t bl ac k
clouds. It was 8:32 am. I
st ood up wa tc hi ng t he
bl ack billows boil up ou t of
the sum m it and the north
side sim ulta neously, th inking,
"W hat an interesting
show! " Scarcely had the
thought surf aced whe n the
entire summit area wa s enveloped
in ro ll ing, velvetbl
ack billows that growled
like muffled th unde r, expanding
at an incredible
rate. On e fa ntasti c cl oud
exploded huge rocks and
ice. Ty saw a part of the
Coat Rocks format ion slide
away, the toe of a mammoth
land slid e. W e im agined
Jerr y, te rr if ied, witnessing
the entire north side
of t he mo unta in slid ing towa
rd him . W ith the black
exp lo sio n cl o ud raci ng
northw ard in a horizontal
blast at 120 .miles per hou r,
Jerry had on ly mi nutes for
his last transmission: " I've
got to try to back ou t of
here!"
Ty ran fo r his camera and
too k seven pictures as the
blast ro lled out toward Mt.
Rain ier. He noted that the
enormous black cascade,
indescribabl y complex and
band ed w ith steam, w as
fanning out toward t he
South Fork of the Toutle,
the last protection for our
exposed ridge. " Let' 5 get
out of here !" Ty yelled as I
walked toward our car,
stunned.
Jumping in the van, we
sped ' eastwa rd down the
road (toward the mountain)
for one and on e-half miles
befo re turnin g so u t h .
" W h i c h way a re you
going?" Bob K7UPT's voice
pierced the sta tic, and I
screamed, " South!" I also
rem ember shouting, " The
cloud is going toward Coldwater
Peak and Jerry !"
Our fourteen-m il e ride
down ove r the rough fore st
roads seemed as unreal as a
nig htma re. I fo und mysel f
on my knees cl utching the
radi o, being showered by
fa ll ing ob jects f ro m an
open cupboard. O ut our
va n windows, th e death
cloud virtually f illed the
visible sky in its imm ensity.
It was dirty grey and suffocating
as a to mb with darker
colu mns slowly rising to
a billowi ng mushroom top.
It was almost beyond
conception-an unimaginable
ev il abstracting bi zarre
patterns of twisting, undulat
ing smoke and hot gases
ascending to the roof of
hell.. In a race against time,
our frail vehic le pa ralleled
t hat horrend ou s clou d,
f lashing w it h bolt li ghtning
and only one mile away. It
73 Magazine. October, 1980 35