THE NEXT ICE AGE - NOW!

Mount St. Helens observatory reopens for anniversary …
with 12 feet of snow still on the ground

17 May 08 - Sunday is the anniversary of the 1980 explosion that shot ash into a 30-mile-high column and rewrote the geology books. The Johnston Ridge Observatory, only 5 miles from the crater, has reopened for the season.

But don't be too anxious to hike to the top. There's still about 12 feet of snow, so much that it may be as much as a month behind the typical melt-out that allows hikers, not snowshoers, to make the summit, which this year might not be until July.

http://heraldnet.com/article/20080517/LIVING/656077957