I would rather be seeing the mountain from this video, than from the ash covered campsite I had just decided the day before, not to go to. I moved to Seattle in October of 1979. I was planning to camp at the mountain Saturday May 17th, 1980 and get up the next Morning May 18th for a 10am meditation at my Tibetan lama's new Olympia center. My friend Satya recommended an acupunturist Rick Kitaeff, who tried to help my psoraisis. He and his wife Annie, saved my life. Their child was my first magic party in Seattle, and they said, "If you want to be known for magic shows in Seattle, I should go to the mountain another weekend and perform at The University Street Fair. They were right. If I went and didn't leave before 8:30am I would still be there. One person got out of the camp ground at 100 miles per hour, with trees snapping behind him.

In both the Blowdown and Standing Dead areas, the sudden collapse of the volcano's north flank released the tremendous pressure that had been building inside the mountain. Expanding gases and steam from the molten rock caused a series of huge explosions. These explosions ripped through the sliding avalanche of debris. The blast of rocks, ash, and gases swept across the land at speeds up to 670 miles an hour. Inside the blast, temperatures reached 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The blast travelled as far as 16 miles north of the volcano. It spread over an area of about 150 square miles. The force of the blast stripped trees from hillsides as far away as 6 miles from the volcano. Further away, as the blast began to slow, trees were knocked over or snapped in half. Trees were left standing around the edges of this blowdown zone. http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html