The Eruption and the Pinto

An epic tale of survival, a viral photo, and the disappearance of Dick Lasher.

Photograph by Richard “Dick” Lasher

Days after the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens, Cliff Smith heard a remarkable story he’d never forget.

Smith was working for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, pitching vending machine companies on carrying their cigarettes. Smith was riding shotgun with a “routeman,” restocking vending machines with Camels, when he started talking about his close call with the eruption. The man’s name was Richard “Dick” Lasher.

On the morning of May 18, 1980, Lasher, who was also a freelance photographer, headed towards Mount St. Helens in his bright red Ford Pinto. Lasher told Smith that his plan was to drive his Pinto as far as he could, then take his motorcycle, precariously hitched to the bumper, even closer. “He tried to get as close as possible,” Smith recalled. “I don't think at the time he knew just how close he was.”

Then, at 8:32 am, the mountain erupted with fury. Lasher skid to a halt as the gigantic ash cloud barreled towards him, jumping out of his Pinto and taking the now-infamous photo. Normally, it’s a Cardinal sin for a photographer’s vehicle (or camera bag) to appear in the frame. But not this time.

It was too late for Lasher to turn around his car, so he jumped on his Yamaha and fled the plume of ash. “By the time he unhooked his dirt bike his Pinto was on fire,” Smith told me.

Smith, who is retired and living in Idaho, said Lasher gave him a print after working together on the vending machine routes. “I have had that picture hanging on the wall in every house since!”

Smith’s 8x10 print is remarkable and uncropped — notice the tops of the trees in the upper right hand corner and a bit more foreground. The skid marks left by the Pinto are clearly visible on the dirt road.

There are multiple versions of Lasher’s photo kicking around the internet, with unknown origins (the file I used up top bears the closest resemblance to Smith's print).

And then there’s this fantastic rendition by G.H. Coats that sold for $1,000 on Etsy.

A few years later, while working for Boeing, Lasher retold the harrowing story to several of his co-workers, including Gary Cooper. “The next day as soon as he could, he rode his motorcycle back up into the now really hot zone with his camera to get what pics he could,” Cooper told Hemmings Motor News in 2019. “He was well into the red no go zone, when a helicopter saw him, and came right down and landed in his path. He was surprised to be arrested on the spot and flown out in the chopper and to jail. They left his motorcycle lay on the mountain.”

Another co-worker at Boeing, Steve Firth, was one of the first people to post Lasher’s photo on Facebook in 2017. “[Lasher] told me that there were lightning bolts shooting out of the smoke but he didn’t have the right filter on his camera to capture them at that moment,” Firth commented.

Since then Lasher’s image has gone viral multiple times, most often on Reddit, where the comments almost always focus on the bright red Pinto.

No one I spoke to has been in contact with Lasher for decades. I tried calling multiple Richard Lashers in Washington state but had no luck — it’s almost as if he’s disappeared. “Neither I nor anyone I know has been able to get in touch with Dick, and we have tried,” Cooper told me. “Couldn't find an obituary for him either, so maybe he is still out there.”