The Diamond on the east side of Longs Peak is perhaps the most awesome alpine wall in the United States. I had kicked off my July 2018 road trip to RMNP with a climb of Yellow Wall + Forrest Finish on The Diamond. Two weeks later, and 10 other excellent RMNP climbs in my wake (go to my Colorado main page to access trip reports for these other climbs), I again found myself standing at the base of The Diamond, staring up at over 1000 feet of granite stretching vertically above me. I had planned on starting my drive home the day before, but when the opportunity presented itself to climb this awesome alpine wall one more time, how could I leave?

My partner for the day was Will Starks. He had already climbed The Diamond a couple of times, and knew of the quality of the climbing and was eager to climb another route. The primary objective for the day was the route Pervertical Sanctuary. This route is one of the more popular on The Diamond, climbing first up the left side of The Mitten formation and then up the right side of the Obelisk Pillar, with lots of varied and steep 5.10 crack climbing from fingers to hands to fists. I had climbed Pitches 2 & 3 of Pervertical Sanctuary when I climbed Ariana in 2014 and Will had climbed Pitches 5 & 6 when he climbed Curving Vine about a week previous, but neither one of us had climbed Pervertical Sanctuary in its entirety, so we were both psyched to climb it.

We figured that Pervertical Sanctuary would go reasonably quick, so we discussed the possibility of climbing Casual Route afterward. Casual Route is the easiest—and hence most popular—route up the Diamond, but still offers challenging climbing and great exposure. We also discussed the possibility of climbing all the way to the top of the wall via the two Yellow Wall pitches above Table Ledge, which is rarely done but means you climb up the entire wall rather than finishing 3/4 of the way up at Table Ledge.

Given the "40% chance of thundershowers after noon" forecast and our ambitious plans for more than just one route, Will and I left the Longs Peak trailhead at 1:35am, shooting to get to the base of The Diamond around sunrise (5:50am). We approached via the Chasm View rappels (I had done both the Chasm View approach and North Chimney approach in the past, and they seemed to take about the same amount of time, with the Chasm View rappels being a bit safer than the North Chimney). When we arrived on Broadway Ledge, there was not a cloud nor another party in sight (two other parties arrived within the hour, but that was all we saw that day, quite a bit different from the 16 parties the last time I climbed the Diamond, probably thanks to the forecast), so we decided to go for our two-route plan. We left our stuff at the base of the wall and headed up Pervertical Sanctuary in t-shirts, with just an extra layer attached to the harness. I led Pitches 1/5/6 and Will led Pitches 2/3/4 (linking Pitches 2&3). Pervertical went quick and offered amazing climbing. It is probably my favorite route on The Diamond so far. The sun was just beginning to leave the wall when we started the rappels from Table Ledge. Small puffy clouds were developing above, but nothing looked ominous yet. 45 minutes later we were down on Broadway Ledge, the only ones left on The Diamond (the other two parties were headed down), scrambling over to the base of Casual Route. This was a rare opportunity to climb Casual Route with no one on it! We soon figured out the reason (or at least a reason) there was no one on it—the route was pretty darn soaked from the previous day's thundershowers (interesting, since Pervertical had been completely dry). Needless to say, the Casual Route ended up being a bit less casual then we had predicted. "This is good training for the alpine," I once commented as I felt chilly water run down the inside of my forearm; moments later realizing that this was alpine, ha. By the time we were halfway up, small mid-afternoon squalls were moving through, with intermittent spits of rain and thunder booming a few miles away. But this was par for the course in Colorado, and we didn't feel in any imminent danger, so we continued upward. Due to the conditions, Casual Route took us longer than expected; plus, we noticed that the Yellow Wall pitches above Table Ledge were pretty wet; so we decided it was the best decision to rappel back down and hike out via Chasm Lake, rather than continuing on to the summit. All in all, a superb day on The Diamond: two routes and 14 pitches on the most awesome alpine wall in the US!

This page gives a trip report from our climb of Casual Route, including a route overlay, time stats from the climb, and lots of photos. Initially I had the trip report for Pervertical Sanctuary alongside, but when I climbed both of these routes again I ended up splitting the trip report for Pervertical Sanctuary to a separate page (click link). Enjoy!

Interesting note: I did this entire 22.5-hour push in a fasted state. In fact, I hadn't eaten since noon the day before, so by the time we got back to the car—and I did eat then, I admit I was pretty ravenous once I got started—I hadn't ingested any calories for 36 hours. All I consumed was electrolyte-enhanced water. And I felt just fine. Crazy, huh? Click here to see a "trip report" from a 7-day fast I did later that summer, which also goes into a bit of discussion of my experiences with fasting and the ketogenic diet and their effect on physical performance.

The Casual Route had been soaking wet when I climbed it in 2018. I'd always wanted to climb it again when it was dry. In late June 2020, I finally did (usually in June the Casual Route is still quite wet but it had been a dry Spring and the snow had melted earlier than usual). Somewhat coincidentally, I climbed it with the same parter, Will Starks. (As an interesting sidenote, when I climbed Pervertical Sanctuary and Casual Route with Will in 2018, it was during a road trip to Colorado that was supposed to be for one week and turned into a month when I discovered it difficult to leave. It was on that trip that I decided to move to Colorado. Will has now become one of my regular climbing partners.)

Will and I had a blast climbing this route again. We got an early start and were first on the route, and after the party behind us bailed we were the only ones on the route for the day. Despite the nice weather, it was a quiet day on the Diamond, with only one other party over on Pervertical. Without ever rushing, we made pretty good time, clocking a 12 hour and 15 minute car to car time. Will and I agreed there couldn't be a better way to spend a summer day than climbing on the Diamond.

Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

It was one of those rare calm and sunny summer Saturday where the Diamond stands strangely vacant of climbers. There had been a fatal climbing accident up there earlier in the week, so that could have had something to do with it. Or just that everyone figured it would be crowded and decided to head elsewhere for the day. Whatever the reason, Nate and I ended up being just one of two parties on the entire wall.

The original plan for the day had been to climb D1, but energy was a bit low so we snatched the rare opportunity to climb the Casual Route without another party on it. We approached with our harnesses on and small daypacks, so we continued to the summit via Kiener's Route and descended via the Cables Route for a nice round tour. Although we felt we were moving a lazier pace than usual, stopped to chat with some friends we ran into, and didn't even rush the trail section, we somehow ended up with a pretty respectable car-to-car time of 9:38, 10 minutes faster than our previous quickest car-to-car time (9:48 minutes on Yellow Wall + Forrest Finish). We were back to Estes Park relaxing on Nate's porch by 3 pm. The race was on to get the trip report finished before dinner!

Another great day of climbing on the Diamond! Can't get enough of this alpine wall of granite. Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

The start of the Fall semester always comes along with the beginning of a stretch of stable, warm mountain weather. So when Will asked if I was interested in a mid-week ascent of the Diamond, it was hard to resist. "I have to be back for a meeting with my advisor at 3pm," I told Will. "No problem. Let's climb the Casual Route. We can simul-climb it in 2 long pitches and be back in Boulder by 2pm at the latest," was his response. He had already simul-climbed the Casual Route a couple of times in the last few weeks with his friend Mike, achieving a car-to-car time of just under 7 hours. A year out of knee surgery, I knew I would not be comfortable running downhill as Will and Mike had done, so I figured we would be a bit slower than that. Of my 18 ascents of the Diamond so far, my fastest car-to-car time had been 8 hours and 57 minutes, on D7 the previous summer, but Nate and I had not really set out for any sort of time goal on that climb. So breaking 8 hours seemed like a reasonable goal. "Yeah, let's do it!"

It ended up being an awesome day on the Diamond. Despite the warm and calm late-summer weather, there was only one other party climbing the Diamond; they were also climbing the Casual Route, but despite our relatively late 5am start from the trailhead, we were the first to arrive at the base of the route. Will and I simulclimbed the Casual Route in two long pitches (Pitches 1-5 to the top of the dihedral as the first pitch, and Pitches 6-8 to Table Ledge as the second pitch), using a 30m rope and 3 Micro Traxions placed strategically. Will led both pitches since he had already dialed the gear and Micro Traxion placements. We scrambled up Kiener's Route to the summit and descended the Cables Route (it's by far quicker to go up and over than rappel the Diamond). Our car-to-car time was 7 hours and 45 minutes, plus we tagged the summit. A new personal best (for me)! We made it back to the trailhead before 1pm, with plenty of time for me to get back to Boulder to make my 3pm meeting with my advisor. I love these kind of days. Pure fun.

(As a humbling sidenote regarding our car-to-car time, in August 2020, Wade Morris and Stefan Griebel set the fastest car-to-car time of 3:53:59, on the Casual Route. Wow. Then, in August 2021, Maury Birdwell free soloed the route with an even faster car-to-car time of 3:26:12. Wow again.)

Another awesome day on the Diamond. Photos from our climb below. 

Summer 2022 had arrived and I was itching to get on The Diamond. So was my friend Will. The last time either one of us had climbed The Diamond was the previous September, when together we simulclimbed the Casual Route, ticked the summit, and got a car-to-car time of 7 hours and 45 minutes (my personal best so far). In fact, up to this point, three of my four ascents of the Casual Route had been with Will. So why not a fourth time together?

Being early summer and not feeling end-of-summer dialed as we had when we got the sub-8 car-to-car time, our goal was just to have a fun climb of the Casual Route, and not worry too much about speed. Plus, we anticipated (correctly) that the Casual Route would be a tad wet, as it usually is in the early summer. The forecast was for afternoon thundershowers, so we opted to bring a 60m lead line + escaper (instead of just a 30m lead line and going for it).

Will and I simulclimbed the Casual Route in three long pitches (Pitches 1-4 to the bottom of the dihedral as the first pitch, Pitches 5-6 up the dihedral as the second pitch, and Pitches 7-8 to Table Ledge as the third pitch), using a 60m rope and 3 Micro Traxions placed strategically. In retrospect, given the damp conditions on some sections and the large amount of rope out when you simulclimb with a 60m rope, we probably would have actually moved a bit faster overall if we had just pitched it out. We scrambled up Kiener's Route to the summit and descended the Cables Route. The weather was perfect until around noon, but at this point we were on the summit and headed for the descent, with stormclouds quickly building (the forecast was for "80% afternoon thundershowers"). By some miracle, Longs Peak remained under blue skies and we never actually got wet. Our car-to-car time for this casual day was 11 hours.

I don't think I will ever grow tired of climbing on The Diamond. I hope there will be at least a few more Diamond ascents this summer.

Another awesome day on the Diamond. Photos from our climb below. 

Summer 2024 had arrived and I was itching to get on The Diamond. So was my friend Carolyn, who had not climbed the Diamond in a few years due to hip surgery followed by having a baby.

Being early summer and not feeling end-of-summer dialed, our goal was just to have a fun climb of the Casual Route, The forecast looked pretty good with a chance of afternoon thundershowers, so we opted to bring a 70m lead line + escaper and plan to tag the summit and descend via the Cables Route rappels.

It was ideal weather on The Diamond: sunny, warm, calm, and dry. But despite these ideal summer conditions, we had the entire Diamond to ourselves. We relished this special uncommon experience.

Thiw was one of the most sublime days I've had on the Diamond to date. Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

Nate and I had climbed Komito Freeway (5.10b, 6p) on the Diamond the previous week, and this week the plan was to climb D7 (5.11c, 5-6p). We brought two ropes and a small haulbag, with the plan to climb the route packless and haul food/water/layers, and then descend by rapping the Diamond Rappel Route. However, when we arrived at Broadway, another party was racking up at the base of D7. Unusually, no one was on the Casual Route (5.10a, 8p) (except for a party who blazed past us when we were at the base of the North Chimney, and climbed the route in 57 minutes, 4:31 car to car, according to their mountainproject tick). So we decided to take advantage of that rarity and climb Casual Route. We left the haulbag on Broadway and just clipped water/food/layers to our harnesses. The double rope setup would be a bit obnoxious (it's most fun—and quickest—to climb Casual Route with a single rope and summit and hike out) but we would have to put up with it. Nate embraced the casual day and let me lead most of the route (he led the two traverse pitches: Pitches 3 and 8).

Even though we were a bit disappointed to not get on D7, any day climbing on the Diamond is a good day, so we had fun. D7 next time, hopefully! Photos from our climb below. 

The next day, I was back...another lap on the Casual Route again.

Climbing the Diamond on back-to-back car-to-car days is great exercise. In 2021, I had climbed Ariana (5.12a, 6p) and Yellow Wall + Forrest Finish (5.10d-5.11b, 6p) on back-to-back car-to-car days. In 2024, I again climbed the Diamond on back-to-back car-to-car days, this time climbing the Casual Route (5.10a, 8p) on both days (the original plan had been to climb D7 (5.11c, 5-6p) on the first of the two days, but there was a party on it when we arrived on Broadway).

Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!

This was my 30th ascent of the Diamond. Due to heavy rain the previous day, the route was unexpectedly wet. After the other three parties on the route bailed one-by-one due to the wet conditions, we had the route to ourselves. But we had come with just a single 30 m rope planning to simulclimb with micro tractions, so we were committed to getting up the route. It just took a bit longer and wasn't quite as fun. But it was still a great day with a successful ascent of the Diamond sans crowds!

Photos from our climb below. Enjoy!