NEAR MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. — May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. A chunk of our world was uncorked and blown off the face of the earth in a billowing, colossal blast of inconceivable destruction.
The world wasn’t ending, but for a time it felt that way.
A column of ash rose 15-miles above the earth. Four-billion board-feet of lumber was blown down and cast away. It was the largest landslide in recorded history.
Entire forests became matchsticks. In the avalanche, 14 miles of the North Fork Toutle river were buried under an average of 150 feet, in some places 600 feet, of rock, sludge, mud and trees. Volcanic debris was blasted across 230 square miles.
It was the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history. It was the biggest story that ever happened in the state of Washington.
KOMO-TV News crews had been visiting the mountain for weeks before the blast as it rumbled and burped. After it blew, KOMO News crews went as close to St. Helens as they could.
But, one man, with one camera didn’t go to the mountain after it was blown to smithereens, he was already there, in the middle of it all.
KOMO News photographer, Dave Crockett, woke up at 3 a.m. on May 18, 1980, afraid he was going to miss out on the story of a lifetime. Something told him he needed to drive to the mountain.
“I guess you’d call it a hunch. I just had a feeling something’s gonna happen,” he said.
When Crockett arrived, the mountain erupted. He was exhilarated at first, awe-struck. Then, Mount St. Helen’s came after him.
Crockett raced through the valley in his news car driving ahead of a 30-foot wall of mud and debris.
Desperate, he turned up an old logging road. “I took a left hand turn and the road blew up in front of me. I tried to back up and the road behind me was gone.”
Crockett had no choice but to take off on foot.
Before long the sun was blotted out by ash and day became night. Crockett’s camera rolled as he walked. He can be heard pleading, “Dear god, whoever finds this, as you can tell probably from this picture, I’m walking towards the only light I can see on top of a ridge. I can hear the mountain behind me rumbling.”
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He continued to hike documenting his feelings of desperation and despair. “Oh, dear God, my God this is hell. I just can’t describe it, it’s pitch black. Just pitch black. This is hell on earth I’m going through. Oh God.”
Eventually, on that slog through the blackness he felt something else. He felt hope. “My God, I never realized how much I want to live. I want to live so bad,” he said out loud to himself.
Crockett finally made it to a cliff, where he took a wild-eyed self-portrait. The world had blown up in his face and he was still standing.
Lots of journalists covered the eruption of Mount St. Helens. But, when the ash had cleared and our nerves calmed, KOMO News had never stood taller.
“I feel very privileged to have been here that day, believe it or not,” Crockett said. “Even though I came close to losing my life, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
