LONGVIEW — Those looking to scale Mount St. Helens will have to wait until next week for a permit after the permitting website crashed due to overwhelming demand Thursday morning.
Ray Yurkewycz, executive director of the Mount St. Helens Institute, said more than 10,500 people attempted to get the $22 permits between 9 and 10 a.m., causing the site to crash. Permits are required for anyone climbing above 4,800 feet elevation on the volcano. The Institute sells 100 permits a day from mid-May through October.
Yurkewycz added that two and a half times more people tried getting permits in that first hour this year versus in 2017.
“We did not foresee a huge increase this year,” he said. “I’m not sure how we could have. An increase this year does not follow the trend of the past several years.”
KIRO 7 News reported the website began working again later Thursday afternoon, but the calendar for visitors to choose climbing dates and all checkout buttons disappeared.
The Institute on Thursday afternoon suspended the permitting process and expects to update the situation by 5 p.m. Monday. Permits purchased before the site crashed are valid.
According to Yurkewycz, the Institute is pausing the permitting process to assess the problems and make needed fixes.
He believes the added online traffic was due to more news outlets running the Institute’s press release announcing the permitting sign-up time and date. He also added that the demand for outdoor recreation has grown in the past few years.
“There are more and more people heading outdoors and more opportunities to learn about outdoor activity through Facebook groups,” he said. “The past couple years, there’s been more people joining those groups. So it’s a snowball effect.”
Many would-be climbers voiced frustration on the Institute’s Facebook page.
“Don’t know what you guys need to do, but you need to change it from the current system. Current system sucks,” Seattle resident Cody Golden commented on an Institute post asking for patience.
Yurkewycz said the silver lining of the website crash is how it shows a greater-than-ever interest in Mount St. Helens.
“I am happy to see more (people) engaging with our outdoors and our public lands.”
