Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980 and has since been closely monitored by the Cascade Volcano Observatory (CVO). It remains active and proximate to over a million people. I was the quot;volunteer photographerquot; for the CVO from 2012 through to 2014 where mostly I sorted and scanned slide film into digital format. But, I was offered a couple opportunities to accompany crews into the crater (via helicopter) to document their ongoing work.br/ br/ This photo, captured in July 2012, shows Bryan, an intern, as he marked out the drop zone for the incoming sling loads. The day's project was to build a new data telemetry station to replace one that had been crushed by the previous winter's heavy snowfall. The steamy looking stuff is ... just that - steam. This location had multiple hot zones requiring care as to where one walked and worked. [I stupidly placed a camera backpack on a convenient rock only to see the nylon mesh begin to melt.]br/ br/ A gallery of photos I captured for the CVO is posted at the following link:br/ br/ a href="https://eruttledge.zenfolio.com/f556457231" target="_self"https://eruttledge.zenfolio.com/f556457231/a