I was flying north toward Seattle Washington. I saw that small aircraft flying from West to East up against Mount St. Helens before the 🌋 erupted. I just thought that that was so crazy. As we passed by about 5 minutes later, our aircraft (Alaska Airlines) ✈️ felt the shockwave. I will never forget that day.

Don't forget about Gerry Martin. He was giving a play-by-play of the eruption as it happened. He was on the ridge line just past Johnston and witnessed (and described) the landslide at the mountain, the vertical blast, and the wall of mountain that went over Johnston Ridge (describes the "car and trailer" being swept away). Gerry like Johnston was never seen again. "see you later Gerry"

I hiked St. Helens in 1982 and was in shock looking at the amount of devastation up close. Surprisingly, sprouts of plants and trees could be seen finding their way through the deep ash, promises of life trying to repopulate the mountain.

I lived on Spirit Lake Hwy in Castle Rock, WA. I was six when my dad woke me up to say, Mt. St. Helens blew her cookies. My parents were on the Castle Rock fair board so that evening we went to see how bad the damage was. We spent two years manually digging out the buildings that are still used today. I had friends and teachers who escaped but lost everything they owned. My dad took us for a drive later that day to see what damage we could see. Not far away we went to the Tower Bridge which I’d just gone over Friday morning on my school bus, the entire bridge was gone!! We have pictures of the mushroom ploom we took from our backyard. Not long after it blew my dad was laid off from his job at the now closed, Reynolds Aluminum Plant in Longview, WA. One of his side jobs was to work at the base of the mountain where they had pumps running 24/7 trying to keep the river running. That volcano still scares me and the few times I’ve been up there since, I couldn’t leave fast enough. The quietness scares me!! In 1995 I took a helicopter ride into the base. The sound of the blades echoeing, sounded like an eruption which was terrifying!! I have so many memories from that day in May and beyond that aren’t in any history books!! At only six years old, her eruption was one of my first memories!! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come up with so many questions to ask my parents who’ve both passed. Fortunately I do have tons of pictures my dad took during the eruption, right afterwards, the cleanup of the fairgrounds, and from his time working on the pumps. I just wish I knew the stories behind them!!

I attended the Longview MCA camp on Spirit Lake in 1952 thru 1956. We climbed the mountain twice - once from Truman;s side and once from the ape caves side on the south. The remnants of the old forest service fire lookout were still there. In 1995, my wife and I got the opportunity to go into the crater by helicopter (bluebird), spend the day behind and on the dome and hike out at the end of the day. The dome was re-building and the rebuilding and there were steam vents and ice caves. This was before the "whale back" formed. Two great trips that we'll never forget We live in Dallas now. No volcanoes down here. Thanks for the fly-over. I knew Harry Truman.

Always love your videos! My family was living in Montana when St Helen’s blew. We had ash 4 inches deep in our yard… My husband was with the Forest Service, and when the mountain was set to reopen a year later, forest service personnel were invited for a personal behind the scenes tour. I’ll never forget that trip, or the events on May 18.

As a european citizen I've always been fascinated by Mt St-Helen history. Thanks for this awesome video!

Great video! I grew up in Longview, WA and spent many summers at the Longview Y camp as a camper, then on the staff. My wife and I spent our honeymoon in September of 1979 camping at the lake because I kept telling her that it was the most beautiful place in the world. Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake have always held a special place in my heart. I even had a few 'interesting' interactions with Harry Truman. While a camper, the Forest Service would often send a ranger over to talk about the mountain and potential eruptions. Back then, what they predicted was no more than some of the very small eruptions during the early dome building period as I recall. Boy, were they wrong! I've taken a couple of charter flights over the mountain, including one a year to two after the eruption. It was quite a shock to see what that area had become. Thanks for sharing your flight and information.

Well done! Nice blend of education and aviation.

Beautifully done. Loved the history, background music, editing. Very professionally done and informative.

Very well done, especially the historical footage, some of which I had not seen before. As a degreed geologist and growing up in Oregon, I spent a lot of time tracing the volcanic history of the Cascades from Mt. Lassen to Mt Baker, crawling through lava tubes, and gathering pyroclastics. On that fateful day, a Sunday as I recall, I was working at the Hanford Project, directly downwind. By 5pm it was dark and it looked like we were in a snowstorm of grey powder falling from the sky. The fine glass shards plugged air filters, making cars inop. Buildup on power lines caused shorts and loss of power. It was a bad day for those of us 40 miles from Richland and working at a nuclear plant needing electricity to keep the cooling pumps running (think Fukushima in 1980). Our emergency generators needed large volumes of air but soon died when their filters plugged up. No one had ever anticipated a loss of offsite and onsite power from volcanic ash fall. Some heroic actions saved the day and no one was none the wiser.

At a time, and in a world, where it’s all been done before and originality has fallen sloppy dead, you’ve legitimately created a new angle to interesting education. Instead of just resting on your laurels of being a pilot with his own plane, you’ve gone above and beyond with filming, researching, animating, narrating, and editing videos to an incredibly effective and professional degree worthy of National Geographic, and created something magnificently beautiful. I’ve only subscribed to a few channels in the almost two decades I’ve been on KZfaq, but you’ve sincerely earned another subscriber, dude. Please keep up the great work with these videos. I’m from the Adirondacks, but have lived in Colorado for the last twelve years. So if you could cover either one, or both, of these mountain ranges, that’d be most excellent.

Another quality video from you. As a 17 year old, I was in Spokane and remember the aftermath. Thanks for the nostalgia.

Superb video - very enjoyable and a very professional production - you deserve way more views and subscribers!

That was fantastic. I remembered this also from when I was a kid and remember being taught about in high school later. The information and production in this video was top quality - I think your best work yet - and I hope you get the recognition you deserve.

I remember when Mt. St. Helens erupted. I was a child living in Albany, OR, and we had ash falling for months that far away. Your videos are amazing, and love hearing about all of the history and details you provide. Thank you for what you do and share.

A day I well never forget. May 18th a beautiful Sunday morning. I was 18 at the time living in St. Helens Oregon right across the Columbia river from Washington state and about 70 miles south of mount St. Helens. We were on the docks on the Columbia getting ready to go boating for the day. Then it happened. We never got one bit of ash from the eruption it all went north and east of us. Watched it until the sun went down. It is seared in my memory for ever.

Beautifully shot and edited. Enjoyed it!

Once again, another great video! You have the best areal videography on KZfaq! Great music, great history, great job!

Your best flying video yet! Beautifully edited, fabulous camera work! Loved the story telling. Gonna watch several more times and take notes!

Was driving to Church in Castle Rock when it blew. Didn't hear a thing. Once Church was over, we were not allowed to cross back over the Cowlitz river to go home. State Patrol had already blocked the Castle Rock Bridge due to the anticipated wall of mud. I worked the blowdown/blasted down timber recovery from 1982 to 1984. Pops was a private pilot for 40 years. I was very lucky to fly all over the devastated areas with him after the eruption. Dad owned a stunt plane at the time. In 1983 with his stunt plane(Bellanca Citabria) we made a pylon/knife edge turn INSIDE the crater and below the crater wall lip. We made a turn inside the crater, around the mini dome, and flew back out again. 40 feet below me,,looking out the side window, was the smoldering mini dome. I could smell sulfur and see rocks tumbling down. I still live in Castle Rock. I was 13 when it erupted.

I came across from Vancouver Island where I worked was visiting my mom and my sister and her husband in Burnaby, just outside of Vancouver, I was still lying in bed when St.Helen erupted that Sunday morning and we heard it in Vancouver. A brother of mine was on a weekend camping trip in Blaine, Washington, and recall hearing the blast also. I will always remember that sound, that Sunday morning.

This was an awesome video! Thanks for making it

Bryan, I love it that my favorite KZfaq storyteller (seriously) is back telling stories!! And what a thunderous story this is. Thanks! Wayne (DA40 KSBA)

Just saw this video today and you did such an amazing job on telling the story and providing excellent views. Bryan, you have such a talent at telling these stories. I hope you are keeping well and we will see some more in the very near future.

I was expecting you to have well over 500k subscribers with a video of such high quality and perfect delivery. Well done my friend.

My cousin from Portland was visiting in Kansas during the eruption, she was so disappointed she missed the eruption. Will never forget this event.

I was 8 when the eruption happened. There was ash on our picnic table in Goleta (Santa Barbara county). That is a long way! Great video

Probably your best video so far / enjoyed the extra history

Great video thank you. Drove out to Johnston Ridge lookout years ago. I’ll never forget the experience. The sky was clear and you could see for miles. Can’t believe the destruction and how much was removed from the mountain. Cheers 👍🦘🇦🇺

Very cool. You've got an obvious talent for telling this kind of story and you personal interest in the subject matter shines through. I always look forward to watching you videos.

Great video. Really enjoyed the beautiful views of today combined with the historic footage. Thank you!

You picked a beautiful day for the flight, thanks for the video. I’ve made that flight a number of times over the years and it never gets old. Most recently in a C150 from Auburn. Boy, was that a long, slow trip!

What a great video. I was 13 at the time and remember studying the eruption in science class. This video took me right back to the day it happened.

What a fantastically produced video. Well done my friend, keep up the good work!

Excellent video. Thank you for all you do. I'm like you and am fascinated with Mt. St. Helen's. I graduated from high school just 1 week after the eruption, and it has stuck with me ever since.

This is so fascinating to me, I've watched this several times. Mt St Helen's erupted the week I was graduating high school. Love the look from your plane also. Thank you

Outstanding video. Extremely professional and pleasant to watch.

I was there two weeks before the eruptiogn, on my honeymoon with my new wife. We made it to a road closure where there was a group of people hanging out, and there was a vendor there selling T-shirts. (Mount Saint Helen's Moving her Ash ) we bought one of those shirts ! Great job by the way on this video very well done. I can tell you love flying that plane.. safe and happy travels to you !!

Just awesome Wolfi. I was based out of KWHP several years ago and remember meeting you at the fuel pit. I was grateful at that time to thank you for making these. I grew up in Socal and love the desert. Your video on the Burro Schmidt tunnel was great. I have been there several times. I also flew over the San Andreas fault, inspired by your work, and also to the Victorville staging area after the 737 Max debacle, again inspired by your videos. Please keep up the great content. If you are ever in the Boise area, I have a hangar in Caldwell and you are welcome to park there if in the area. Thank you again for the great videos and info. P.S. I was 23 years old when Mt. St. Helens erupted. I had to wonder at the time if this was the beginning of the end. Seattle was pitch black for days due to the ash in the air. I have since visited by land. It was spectacular.

So glad to see you back and with such a fine installment in (what I will call) your “Grand Geology” series. Thank you *very* much for posting. Another timely installment might be Lake Meade. I would also be interested in a Salton Sea episode and (as another poster suggested) a Monument Valley fly-through (with all the planning and self-announce details). I hope the puppy adapts to the Tiger and can go along soon...

Excellent video! Nice blending of the backstory and history with current views. I was 16 when it erupted and remember it well on the news.

Here we are, 43 years to the day... I remember that morning. I was on I-5 driving south, and my mom was on I-5 driving north. We both were delayed (for hours) just before the Toutle river, because of the mud and log flows being washed down. The Toutle flows into the Cowlitz, which flows into the Columbia, which eventually flows into the Pacific. A couple weeks later, I got a job helping to dredge out the river. I was on the fill crew of one of the pipeline dredges. The spoils were pumped up to maybe a mile away onto some hastily appropriated land. I worked in the area where the Cowlitz river passes through the town of Kelso Washington. One of several fills was at the Kelso Elks golf course. I don't know how much material we put into that fill. Tens of thousands of yards at least. Years later, the Three Rivers shopping mall was built on top of it. Do a maps search for 'three rivers mall Kelso' and you'll see it. I didn't work on the following site, but do a maps search for 'toutle river bridge I-5'. Then travel ~900 ft. north using street view. Off to the left, you will see a pile of sand, it's got to be 70 feet tall. That was dredged out of the river by dragline. It wasn't probably more than a couple years, and the Toutle and Cowlitz were dredged and posed little to no threat to the towns, and the Columbia was cleared for safe travel for shipping. The material we dredged was really coarse sand, with quite a few rocks in it, maybe up to 6 inches in diameter. I still have a few of the rocks. I think I did this for 8 months. It was a time to remember. Great movie BTW.

Big difference between this volcano and the one that is slowly oozing out lava in Iceland. Mount St. Helens exploded spewing a pyroclastic flow which was impossible to outrun. Not so in Iceland - that lava is slowly devouring the landscape but is is easy to get away from it.

Fantastic learning video, thank you.

as usual enjoyed the video. so cool to be in your front seat as i could never afford to do that on my own! thanks for putting in your time and energy ... its appreciated and enjoyed!

Thanks for posting this as it brings back memories of that day. I was salmon fishing off Sooke that morning and never heard the blast over the noise of the boat although many others in the Victoria area did. Friends up in Cowichan Lake heard it as the sound traveled up the Cowichan Valley up to the lake and reverbrated off the hills surrounding the lake.

Great video. I remember the event well. I was in graduate school at the University of Wyoming at the time. The ash from the eruption created the most beautiful red sunsets for a long, long time. Ash also fell from the sky afterwards. In 1983, I went for a flight in a small plane and the only colors evident were brightly-colored algae in the streams. It was amazing to see any evidence of life among a moonscape full of tree-sized toothpicks.

Incredibly well done. Thank you.

Awesome background, awesome flying, love all your videos.

Thanks for your video. I remember watching the televised reports on the terrible destruction at Mt. St. Helens back in 1980.

So I wanted to put my own comment here, since I let my kid comment first. Please keep making videos. We homeschool, and my youngest kid has dyslexia so videos are the BEST. We somehow found out about videos made by a company called Awesome Science Media and there is one about Mt St Helens and the trees that compares them to the petrified forest in Yellowstone that was fascinating. And she read the book "I Survived the Eruption of Mt. St. Helens", so your video here was timely and well received! :) You could seriously have a huge homeschool fan base if you continue and keep the videos clean and educational. My daughter wants to know which airport you mainly fly out of? Is it Fullerton? We saw Torrance in the oil spill one.

In my neck of the woods! I’ve been waiting for some more videos from you. Thanks!

Great video, I was there. I was in Tacoma when she blew. Mi friends and I jumped in my truck and headed that way. The state police made us turn around about 25 miles west of the mountain. I will never ever forget that day.

Excellent video and wonderful production.

Fantastic production. Bravo sir

I got stuck in Seattle that day because the mountain blew and Snoqualmie Pass was closed to Eastern WA. Friends in Ellensburg, WA, reported being in church when the ash cloud approached. No one noticed because the windows had been covered for a film. When a member saw it out a window, he was puzzled, then began to warn people that ‘something’ was wrong. People raced for their homes, one friend having to ride back on a motorcycle in the falling ash. The sky turned dark as night and streetlights came on since it was so dark. Upon returning, I found ash everywhere & it continued to be on everything still while out hiking that summer. People saved jars of the ash, while others made pottery out of it. Cory Blanchard

Awesome job! Thanks for sharing the rest of the story.

This one was awesome man. Please do more of this type of videos.

Cool video..awesome to watch...thank you.

Dude, that kicked ass. Loved every minute. Giant Rock in Landers CA has quite a history to it. A man blew himself up, living under it way back when. There's some stories on KZfaq, but I don't think I've seen anything from an ariel perspective.

So good. So good. I could watch these all day.

Nice video content , I love the history and the background music

Nothing better than these aerial shots... gives the most incredible view ... would love to see your take on Monument Valley and Grand Canyon too. Then perhaps Sedona ... Zions NP ... On your way out of Oregon, hit Crater Lake for sure! After watching this, I definitely am going to fly up there and see the same. Also the San Juan Islands are incredible and so easy to reach with GA. You can camp right under your wing at Orcas Island. Thanks Wolfi !!!

Great storytelling. Amazing photos and videos.

Very cool.. I was just shy of my twelfth birthday when she went up. Amazing how much devastation that event caused. It makes you have a tremendous respect for nature... and shows how insignificant we all are on this planet. Well done.

Thanks for this great video !

The subject, production value, and especially the Grumman Tiger.... I am so glad to discover this channel.

My father, a Canadian born in Washington State, visited Mt St Helen after the eruption and brought my son, who was born in Feb 1980, a small jar of the ash back for him.

Great video like you always do!

thank you... this was well done and a great subject.

Thanks for this !

Great educational and entertaining video about the volcano that the British explorer named Mt St Helens after his friend, as you described. I would have mentioned that the indigenous people called it “Lawetlat'la”.

Thank you..great video!! HOPE YOU DO one over mount Baldi San Bernardino.

Just found your channel. Love it.

I was only 9 years old but remember when st Helen’s erupted… one of my late neighbors friends went to st Helen’s and brought me back ash that I have had since I was a child… I have a few other artifacts from st Helen’s…. I have been very fascinated with the 1980 explosion as well…. May God Bless those that lost their lives that day

Great video! When St Helens came back to life in 2004 My friend and I flew around it a dozen times. I took over 1,000 pictures of the smaller eruptions. I was fortunate to have had access to a friend with a plane.

I too was not yet alive when she erupted, but spent of a lot of time in my youth with family who lived about 30-40 miles south of the mountain. To this day, the view of the mountain there is unobstructed and impossible to miss. Thanks to that view, the mountain has held my fascination for as long as I can remember. If I could go back in time, I would make sure to watch the eruption from that place. It is far enough away to be safe but close enough to hear and feel the eruption. As for more places to check out, Washington and Oregon are loaded with beauty and wonder. I have to specifically mention Crater Lake in southwestern Oregon, which resides in the caldera of Mt Mazama. It's the deepest freshwater lake in the United States. The beauty of the area both inside the caldera and outside on the slopes and surrounding areas is staggering. Another one is the Columbia River Gorge where it runs between WA and OR as it heads out to the Pacific. Looking west along the Gorge as it runs through the Cascades while the sun sets is breathtakingly beautiful. We are endlessly spoiled here in the Pacific Northwest.

Great work

I remember watching the eruption on TV. I lived in Utah at the time. There wasn't any ash reported. We could go outside safely.. from what I remember. Thanks for the added information and images. Incredible!

Nice video thanks for sharing 😮

Wow! Great production!

Very cool video, expertly presented. I was 17 when it erupted, and was absolutely fascinated y the unfolding story. The people flying over it that day had a once in a once in a lifetime experience that would be hard to match. Like they were fated to be there to capture the event on film.

That morning I was 16 washing windows at the restaurant I worked at ,the windows started to vibrate not knowing the volcano blew, it was a wild

Awesome video!

I liked it. Well done!

My new favorite video of yours!!

I was 145 Due East of My Saint Helens in Pasco Washington when I heard the mountain blow her top. That moment is etched in my mind. I didn't know it was the mountain when I heard it. I thought someone lit off some dynamite, and the person with me thought it was thunder, with not a cloud in the sky, yet...

Great video

I will never forget this. I lived on the East Coast and was playing catch with my father on the side of our house when suddenly someone said it was snowing. Uh... no. It was ash from St. Helens. Incredible.

Excellent video.

I watched it from my front yard in South King County when I was a little boy. I can still remember the mushroom cloud rising into the air. I didn’t realize I was supposed to be scared at the time…lol. Such an amazing sight!

My mother was in Montana when Mt St Helens erupted, she recalls the ash fall like snow, I also plan to eventually move to Vancouver WA to study and monitor the Cascade Volcanoes

i made plans with a friend in Sandy Oregon to fly around the mountain in his 185 that day. We'd already flown around it quite a bit. We were at Riches Airport preflighting his plane when it blew, so we were up pretty quick. I got good photos and made the cover of Newsweek. And later on Life Magazine as well. Ever since I've been interested in volcanoes. I hope I live long enough to see Mt Hood erupt. I swam across Crater Lake, which was a real experience. You can see down so far that it's terrifying! I'm going to watch the San Andreas Fault video next. Excellent job on this one!

Fantastic video

Great info!

Thanks for posting this informative video. Whilst the Mt. St. Helen's eruption was devastating over a large area, the death toll was very small compared to that caused by the mudslide that was triggered by an eruption on Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia.

I congratulate you on the quality of your video and for your truly unique premise of FLYING over interesting sites like this. If you are asking for ideas for future flyover sites, I would suggest you explore the caldera in YELLOWSTONE because there is so much vague and contradictory evidence of what is really going on there that it is impossible for the general public to know what is really the risk of an imminent major eruption. Good work.

Fantastic video! I am looking into buying a Grumman Tiger for my first plane and your videos are very inspiring! Keep up the great work!!🎩🇺🇸

I climbed St.Helens 10 years ago. They only let 100 people a day on the mountain. Got a permit for $25 and we started climbing. It was hiking around rocks, over rocks from one rock pile to another going post to post (there is no real trail, just posts used as guides). The last 1/8 of a mile was climbing in soft sand. For every 3 steps, you lost one. If it's sunny, you'll be baked alive. Got to the top and my first thought was "I don't think we should be here". Lots of ominous low frequency rumbling and car sized boulders rolling into the crater. We started at 5am and didn't get back to the car until after 8pm.