Last year Dom’s dad and sister travelled from half way across the world to hike Mount Saint Helens. Kaz, Dom’s sister, flew from the UK and Chris, Dom’s dad, flew from Oman in the Middle East just to conquer this epic volcano!!

Chris grew up in the UK where he would always head off with some friends into the countryside for hikes and a little later in life he climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro which was a huge accomplishment - it is no small feat as it is 16,100 ft to the summit! He has always had an urge to climb more mountains and when he heard we were climbing Mount Saint Helens he was in without any hesitation!!

If you are from Portland or have been to Portland you know just how unpredictable Oregon’s weather is and how it changes in a heartbeat! That happened exactly on the week they came over for the hike to the summit.

The forecast = lots of snow!

We didn’t believe that it would snow so decided to go on with the planning and hike anyway but bought everyone some Gortex pants to keep dry just in case!

Everything looked promising until we started to climb the road to the trailhead when half way up the snow was coming down hard!!

Now, these guys flew from half way across the world for this so there was no turning back so we geared up and started for the summit.

We were half way up the boulder field when the clouds came in and the visibility dropped to almost zero.

This was the end of the road for us so we swallowed our disappointment and turned around making our way back down!

The goal for us was to make it to the top but also to experience the beauty of what the top could offer - epic views!

We were not victorious this day but we have more passes for 2020 and plan to get up before the snow!

Here are some photos of their travels while in Oregon!

Chris and Kaz arrive to Oregon and it was so good to see them!