Diamond Peak 5/15/13

Exams ended on May 13, as did my career as a law student. With only a few days between our last exam and graduation (and subsequently the drudgery of bar study), Jake and I decided to get out and ski something. Originally our plan was to ski Mt. Adams. However, closure of the access road caused us to change our plans. Lassen was presented as a possibility, but given its distance we were forced to foreclose on that option as well.

Then it occurred to us: Diamond Peak. Only an hour’s drive from Eugene is one of those most aesthetic shield volcanoes in the Cascade range. Rising up above Willamette Pass, Diamond Peak is not like most of Oregon’s volcanoes. Instead of having a conical shape, with a single definite peak, Diamond Peak is a network of peaks, ridges, and valleys. It is like a one-mountain mountain range.

To see our tracks, check out:  http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2133987

I had summited Diamond Peak a few years ago during a fall backpacking trip. However, I had never attempted it on skis. Thus, the NW bowl on Diamond Peak became our objective. We loaded up Jake's Subaru and headed toward the West side of the mountain. We found a nice campsite off NFD 21 Rd. We built a fire, hydrated, and went to bed early in order to get an early start the next morning.

Our early start came and went, and we didn’t hit the trail until nearly 7:00am. The warm spring had already gone to work on Diamond Peak's considerable flanks. We hiked on dry trail past Corrigan Lake  until we had reached nearly 7000 feet. 

We skinned through the dense steep forest until we reached the base of the one of a handful of west facing bowls on Diamond Peak. We strapped our skis on our pack,  clipped on our crampons, and began the steep ascent to the false summit. From there we traversed South until we were directly below the true summit. We climbed the steep bootpack until the snow ran out. From there we dropped our backs and followed the barren ridge to the summit. Weather was on the horizon, so after a quick look at all the aspects we would have liked to ski, we returned to our skis and began the traverse/descent to the NW Bowl.

The NW bowl is steep, but not particularly long. We skied down it, and back into the trees. We picked our way through the trees following a gully that held snow almost all the way back to the trail. We returned to the car just as it started to drizzle.

Booting Up the West Bowl

The Summit Push