Poaching Mt St Helens

I hear some skier deviants poached it back in 2004.

Damn, what irresponsible yahoos! Even worse I hear they had a snowboarder with them.

I'm interested in poaching stories since the Fall 2004 full mtn closure; though pre-eruption crater poaching does deserve accolades.

So what are the consequences if you get caught poaching? Here's an except from the Columbian article announcing the possibility of St Helens opening:

"Capt. Chris Lynch, law enforcement officer at forest headquarters in Vancouver, said officers have cited only a handful of people who violated the closure zone around the volcano. Mulder said that may be because the consequences of such violations are "painful," with a fine of up to $5,000 or six months in jail. Because interlopers above the timberline would be readily apparent to the many scientists and sight-seers flying around the volcano, law enforcement officers have ample opportunities to capture violators. Lynch said officers easily collared one out-of-shape climber from the East Coast during the height of the volcano's international publicity in the fall of 2004. "I hate to say it, but volcanoes do draw a certain level of people who wear aluminum foil on their heads," she said."

On the 3rd of May I was working in an emergency dept. somewhere in Washington (I won't say where) and treated the minor hand injury of a snowmobiler who had been on St. Helens that day.  He told us he had been all the way to the crater rim.

If you didn't see the photos of the new fin, I've embedded several from the USGS below. I find it quite impressive looking. The AP ran a story about the Johnston Ridge Observatory opening for the season on Friday that included photos of the fin. The AP story seemed to have been picked up by a lot of sources. It was even slashdotted.





More here .

So what are the consequences if you get caught poaching?

I have a friend who climbed St. Helens with a small group during a closure period in the 1980s (maybe the entire 1980s was a closure period?). They were aware it was illegal but had talked to others who had done it with no consequence. They figured the rules weren’t being enforced. As they approached their car after the climb they noted there were a couple of Sherriff squad cars in the parking area. They naively assumed the deputies were responding to some sort of accident. Not so. The deputies arrested the entire group and directed them to drive their vehicle to the Skamania County jail. I believe that’s in Stevenson down on the Columbia River…quite a long and round-about drive from St. Helens. They spent a night in jail and had a court appearance the next day. They were each fined $500.

Wow cool pictures of the fin! - I had no idea. The question is - who is going to have the first ascent/descent ? I am sure if it had some snow on it, Sky would have already skied the thing