On May 18, 1980 a man was hiking on the very tall peaks of Adams summit, Washington. He heard a loud and long rumble in the distance and saw something that was a very rare sight. He saw what appeared to be smoke starting to billow from Mount St. Helens, which was across the valley he was above. He immediately took out his camera and started taking photos when all of a sudden the mountain started to rumble and erupt. He saw something very rare from a viewpoint that not many will every experience. The photos he took that day are absolutely incredible. Take a look at the Mount St. Helens eruption he captured that day.
Across the valley in front of him lies Mount St. Helens. This man captured a very historic volcanic eruption.
This rare event would be an amazing sight to see. One lucky climber had a bird’s eye view of this phenomenon. Luckily he and a friend had their cameras with them and were able to capture these incredible photographs. The eruption ended up killing 57 people due to the initial eruption along with ash fall. Even then, the devastation continued with the Toutle River flooding because of the melting snow and ice from the mountain. Approximately 12 million feet of lumber was swept into the river and eight bridges were destroyed. Approximately 200 homes were damaged or destroyed. Even motorists were stranded until the ash had been cleared from the local runways and highways.