Mt. Fitzherbert

SUMMIT OF MOUNT ST. HELENS — The view from the top of the crater offers a startling look at the forces that make, shape and blow apart the volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest.

Blue-white steam rises out of numerous vents.

A huge rock spine appears stationary but is slowly rising up from the center of the crater, propelled by magma rising to the surface in amounts equal to a pickup-truck load per second.

And there is a glacier, once shaped like a horseshoe, now chopped into two crevassed pieces by the forces of heat and uplift.

MOUNT ST. HELENS — For the climbing public, the curtain up goes next week on the third act of America's most fascinatingly dysfunctional mountain.

It's anyone's guess how many more acts are to follow in the years to come, but the highlight of Mount St. Helens' latest configuration since its devastating eruption of May 18, 1980, will be the unveiling of a close-up view of its new, still-growing volcanic dome.

The dome is creeping slowly and dramatically upward and now is less than 700 feet below the 8,363-foot summit, which opens to climbing next Friday for the first time since volcanic activity prompted closure of the mountain in September 2004.

MOUNT ST. HELENS — Climbers returned to the crater rim of Mount St. Helens on Thursday to witness the active volcano’s smoldering marriage of science and recreation.

The 34 climbers – mostly journalists – were the first to legally climb to the rim for a front-row view of the rock falls, steam plumes and massive new lava dome the public will see when the climbing program at the mountain resumes July 21.

The mountain has been off-limits to climbers since it began erupting in September 2004. Although it is still in an eruptive phase, national forest officials have determined it is now safe to climb.