At noon on Thursday, August 1, I arrived back in Boulder, after a successful 10-day roadtrip involving the Tetons (Direct South Buttress of Moran), Wind Rivers (Cirque Traverse), and Elephant's Perch (Myopia and Astro Elephant). I planned to spend the remaining two weeks of my summer before school started based in Boulder and focusing on climbing in Colorado. Top priority was a route on the Diamond. I had climbed the Diamond via four routes already (Ariana, Yellow Wall + Forrest Finish, Pervertical Sanctuary, and Casual Route), and the Black Dagger route was high on my list of routes to climb up there next. The Black Dagger route is named for and climbs through the deep, 100-foot long, dagger-shaped chimney that starts a few hundred feet above the base of the Diamond and ends half a pitch from Almost Table Ledge. To get there, you can climb either the first three pitches of Yellow Wall or the first two long pitches of D7 to Crossover Ledge.

I was in the midst of unpacking from my roadtrip and thinking about planning my next climb when I got an email from Kishen asking if I was interested in climbing the Diamond the next day (his partner had a work emergency). It took me all of 2 seconds to decide. Even better, Kishen was flexible on route choice (he had climbed several routes on the Diamond already and was more interested in just a day of climbing than attempting a new route). So we made plans to climb the Black Dagger, which he felt was one of the better routes he had done up there.

We left Boulder at 2:15 am and were on the trail by 3:29 am. Since Kishen had not used the Chasm View Rappels in years, we decided to approach via Chasm View, which avoids the North Chimney bowling alley. We were starting up the first pitch of D7 five hours after we left the trailhead. And five hours after that, we were at the top of the route on Almost Table Ledge. The pitches were long with sustained difficulty and awesomeness. Nowhere else (that I've yet climbed at least) can you get hundreds of feet of vertical crack climbing up such a vast expanse of granite. Plus, it was pretty cool to be the only party climbing on the entire Diamond (there was one other party who started up Pervertical, but they bailed two pitches up). We descended via the Diamond Rappel Route, and were back in Boulder by 7:15pm. Due to an efficient pace, lack of crowds, dry rock, and no real issues to take up our time, we were car-to-car in 14.5 hours and Boulder to Boulder in 17 hours; Kishen has probably done it a bit faster, but this is my personal best car-to-car time for a single route so far. (2020 Update: Since this climb in 2019, I have climbed the Diamond several more times, and have gotten my car-to-car time to under 10 hours a couple of times.)

Thanks Kishen for asking me to join. And for being willing to repeat the Black Dagger. It was awesome day on the Diamond!

Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

(The photos with the annotations are from the beta section I have put together to summarize the various approach and descent options for the Diamond. I had created this beta section the previous summer, but I added several photos to it after this trip report.)

I am at the point where I have climbed most of the routes within my wheelhouse on the Diamond. But now comes the enjoyment of repeating some of my favorite routes. The Black Dagger is one of them.

A bit of backstory: In 2014, I was on a climbing road trip through Wyoming that had somehow ended up in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. I had a couple of days free. I paged through a guidebook for the area and came across an image of a pretty phenomenal looking wall. It was called The Diamond. Okay, I wanted to climb that for sure. I made a post on mountainproject looking for someone interested in climbing the Diamond. By the Casual Route (10a), the "easiest" route up the Diamond. Given the committing and difficult nature of the objective, I don't think I actually expected anyone to respond. Long story short, but I ended up getting a response from a Nate Beckwith in Boulder, and we ended up climbing Ariana (12a). That day was probably a turning point in my climbing career and perhaps in my life path in general. It was awesome. Climbing 5.12a at 13,000 feet capped off with being pummeled with hail just as we reached the top of the route. I was blown away. THIS was the kind of climbing I wanted to do. Over and over. And over. More than once I have been grateful that Nate Beckwith took the risk to climb with me that day.

Five years later, in June 2019, I had moved to Boulder. One reason was for grad school. The other reason was now I was positioned a little less than an hour from the trailhead leading to the Diamond. Looking for local partners, I contacted Nate Beckwith. Unfortunately, he was dealing with an injury, but we promised to keep in touch for some future alpine adventures. In August 2021, we finally made it happen. Both of us were itching to get back up on the Diamond (I'd only climbed it a few times this season, and Nate had not climbed it since before his injury a couple of seasons previous). We decided to climb the Black Dagger.

As before, we accessed the actual Black Dagger pitches by climbing the first two pitches of D7. The weather was great, although a bit chilly once the sun left the wall in the late morning. I've been struggling a bit with my lead head as I've been recovering from knee surgery just under a year previous, so Nate led all of the pitches. Onsight! Thanks for leading and thanks for another great day on the Diamond, Nate!

Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

Nate and I were focusing our 2024 summer alpine climbing energies on The Diamond. We had climbed D7 on Thursday, and on Saturday we were back to climb Black Dagger. Nate had gotten a bivy permit, so we hiked up our overnight gear with plans to bivy below the towering walls of the Diamond on Saturday night.

As I have done for my previous two ascents of Black Dagger, we chose to climb D7 to Crossover Ledge in order to access the Black Dagger pitches (the other slightly harder option is to climb Yellow Wall to Crossover Ledge). I started us up the route, enjoying the familiarity of a pitch I had led just 48 hours previous. Nate followed; when he reached the top of the pitch after an unusual (for Nate) struggle, he informed me he was not feeling too great. He suspected the smoke from the Alexander Mountain fire was the cause. We had a single 60m rope. It was possible to rappel, but we would probably have to leave some gear. I was feeling fine, but I hadn't planned on leading the entire route, especially the crux pitches. Well, I guess this was my chance to prove to myself I could. So up we headed...

Five hours and a few aid moves (I'll admit to that) later we were on Table Ledge. Fortunately, Nate was feeling a bit better by this point, so we summited, and then descended back to our bivy to enjoy a few minutes basking in the sun and then watch other climbers on the Diamond while we ate dinner.

Below are some photos from the day. What a great route. Hopefully Nate and I can do it again when he is feeling better and swing leads.