Diamond Peak (Oregon Cascades; 8,744')

Diamond Peak is a highly eroded volcano just south of Highway 58. In summer it's an off-trail hike on scree slopes; in winter it provides a nice ski trip. Topo Map Routes: West Ridge (I, 2nd class, moderate ski descent) South Slopes (I, 2nd class, moderate ski descent) References: N.A. Dodge, A Climbing Guide to Oregon , Touchstone Press (Beaverton 1975)	Diamond Peak from the north in early October

Date: November 24, 2005

Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz

Route: W Ridge

Equipment: AT Skis

Time: Trailhead - South Summit : 3 hrs 50 mins
Roundtrip from Trailhead : 7 hrs 30 mins

Comments: Snow line at ~5,200', low snow pack, very hard snow

Trip report:

A very strong high pressure ridge with an accompanying temperature inversion had been sitting over the Pacific Northwest for ten days and was supposed to break down the night of Thanksgiving Day. Paul had flown in the night before, and we decided to use the last day of nice weather to go to the mountains. I had been contemplating Jack, but given very short days we opted for Diamond Peak, wisely so, as it turned out.

We got going from the lower trailhead on the west side at 8:30 under cloudy skies. After half an hour on the trail we hit snow and started skinning. Once we got high enough on the ridge to get a view to the west it became obvious that the collapse of the high pressure was happening about twelve hours earlier than forecast; clearly a storm was rolling in. Somewhere between 6,500' and 7,000' the snow became so hard that skinning was no longer effective, and we switched to snow climbing. The crust was indeed so hard that I was wondering whether I should have taken crampons and ice axe after all, but it was still okay without. Once we were above tree line, Mt. Bailey got whited out, and about ten miles to the west it was clearly raining or snowing. Shortly below the South Summit one of the squalls we had seen coming got us, with high winds that blew the falling snow uphill.

At this point we considered out options. The main summit was still visible, but we expected to get whited out any moment. The ridge from to the main summit did not look skiable, and conditions were not inviting for sitting down and waiting to see what the weather would be doing. So we ditched our packs, ran up the few remaining feet to the south summit, then ran back down and prepared to ski. Once we were down a few hundred feet the squall of course moved on and the weather looked quite reasonable again.

The snow was still extremely hard, but the skiing was quite good. We stayed left (south) of the ridge, which had little snow, and found quite good runs in a succession of bowls. Just above tree line we stopped to have lunch and admire the views. Then the usual survival skiing through the forest started, and pretty soon we ran out of snow.

At this point I switched to sneakers and we worked our way down through the forest, only to find surprisingly deep snow again farther down. Switching back to skis was not a good option, though, due to many logs, and so we just cursed our way down, getting pretty wet and cold feet (I due to my sneakers, Paul due to the absence of gaiters) until we intersected the road that leads to Rockpile Trailhead. We hit the road surprisingly far south and had to hike for almost another half an hour before we got to the car.

On the way down Pioneer Gulch it started to rain, and the rain steadily got heavier. At this point we were glad that we had not gone to the main summit after all, as it would have meant hiking down the road in the dark (which would have been okay) AND the rain (which would have sucked). We made it home with time to spare for Thanksgiving dinner.

Pretty nice trip for late November, and the skiing was surprisingly good.

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