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4838 Hits
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73.06% Score
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3 Votes
Page Type:
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Trip Report |
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Lat/Lon:
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44.14140°N / 113.083°W |
Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Sep 15, 2003 |
I took the recommended dirt road in toward Diamond, but saw one that looked more direct cutting off to the right soon afterward. Followed this one basically from there on, although a bunch of others joined it. The usual maze of dirt roads as you're trying to get closer to the foot of a mountain, I suppose.
But for a sorry little path running through the fields, the one I picked wasn’t bad at all, probably because the ground wasn’t that rocky. So I didn’t even need a 4WD… passed a water tank and then the “road” started heading up a canyon that cut toward the north side of Diamond. I could see a track (probably made by bastards with their ATVs) going up a hill in front of me to the east ridge and I parked in a small dirt circle with a fire ring. The elevation read 7500, which was probably close… up I went.
The climb was steep as hell but not hard – 1st and 2nd class all day, due to losing the path and getting back on it… it didn’t matter as the route was very clear. The ridge got kind of rocky and there was some 3rd class later but nothing too hard. (My definition for 3rd class would be that I can do it with my trekkiing poles in one hand and use the other for climbing, generally). So… through meadows, a light forest, then onto the ridge proper.
The route stayed mostly on the crest but a few times dropped annoyingly down to the north face, which had some snow by now – not enough to be a trouble but my boots would’ve gotten wet if I’d stayed in it – and was in shadow and had cold winds… other than this the climb was sunny and it was beautiful out, especially for late season. From the upper ridge I saw an incredible jagged peak with a couple others around it and for a split second thought, “what the hell mountain is that?” Before realizing I was looking at Mt. Owen, the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons, 110 miles away to the east. Moran and Buck were also visible.
The top of the ridge was much shorter than it looked – I’d thought I was still a ways off and then bang! there I was on top. Nice summit, with a register going back to 1964! Unfortunately, most of the summit register's recent comments were along the lines of "I did this in 3 hours, 12 minutes, 35 seconds, and 75 tenths of a second! The record is now mine!"
Anyway… hung out on top – it was really nice when not in the wind (which generally wasn’t that bad, although once or twice on the way down I had to put my hands in my pockets). And I just reversed the route down, which ios easy to do... the route's so visible (I could see my car from the summit) that you'd have to work really hard to get lost.
Fun climb!
But for a sorry little path running through the fields, the one I picked wasn’t bad at all, probably because the ground wasn’t that rocky. So I didn’t even need a 4WD… passed a water tank and then the “road” started heading up a canyon that cut toward the north side of Diamond. I could see a track (probably made by bastards with their ATVs) going up a hill in front of me to the east ridge and I parked in a small dirt circle with a fire ring. The elevation read 7500, which was probably close… up I went.
The climb was steep as hell but not hard – 1st and 2nd class all day, due to losing the path and getting back on it… it didn’t matter as the route was very clear. The ridge got kind of rocky and there was some 3rd class later but nothing too hard. (My definition for 3rd class would be that I can do it with my trekkiing poles in one hand and use the other for climbing, generally). So… through meadows, a light forest, then onto the ridge proper.
The route stayed mostly on the crest but a few times dropped annoyingly down to the north face, which had some snow by now – not enough to be a trouble but my boots would’ve gotten wet if I’d stayed in it – and was in shadow and had cold winds… other than this the climb was sunny and it was beautiful out, especially for late season. From the upper ridge I saw an incredible jagged peak with a couple others around it and for a split second thought, “what the hell mountain is that?” Before realizing I was looking at Mt. Owen, the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons, 110 miles away to the east. Moran and Buck were also visible.
The top of the ridge was much shorter than it looked – I’d thought I was still a ways off and then bang! there I was on top. Nice summit, with a register going back to 1964! Unfortunately, most of the summit register's recent comments were along the lines of "I did this in 3 hours, 12 minutes, 35 seconds, and 75 tenths of a second! The record is now mine!"
Anyway… hung out on top – it was really nice when not in the wind (which generally wasn’t that bad, although once or twice on the way down I had to put my hands in my pockets). And I just reversed the route down, which ios easy to do... the route's so visible (I could see my car from the summit) that you'd have to work really hard to get lost.
Fun climb!