05/18/2026
“Broken Mountain” - It was a Sunday morning, and I was sleeping in. I awoke with a start to the loudest sonic boom I’ve ever heard. The eruption of Mount St. Helens has lived in my head rent-free ever since. Sound travels in weird ways. Some people, just a ridge or two away, heard nothing.
My first visit to the mountain was last year, when I led a 3-day workshop for Nikon at Spirit Lake at sunset.
In a teachable moment and to do the experience justice, I created an HDR-Pano from 90 images, resulting in a 14k photograph so detailed you can see the monitoring equipment on the slope.
Nikon Z6III + Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S lens
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens changed the landscape of the Pacific Northwest forever.
57 people died that day, including USGS volcanologist David Johnston, “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” was his warning.
A massive 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered the largest landslide in recorded history, taking out the volcano’s entire north face. Seconds later, a lateral blast ripped through the forest at speeds up to 670 mph, leveling 230 square miles of old-growth trees.
The eruption sent a column of ash 15 miles into the sky, blanketing nearby states in darkness and shifting global weather patterns. Rivers turned into raging mudflows (lahars) that swept away homes, bridges, and highways.
Today, the landscape remains a powerful living laboratory, showing the incredible resilience of nature as life slowly returns to the blast zone.
