Diamond peak, W7I/CI-001, has been on my to-do list of SOTA peaks for several years. I finally got to do it on August 27, 2024. The weather was clear and cool and the bugs were gone.
I climbed it with a couple friends who have done it before; that made the complicated route finding less intimidating. It’s is one of the best peaks I have done, and it might be Idaho’s most exciting peak. If you don’t mind LOTS of 3rd class climbing, I highly recommend it. The road to the trail head requires 4WD vehicle. One of my partners had a brand new Ford Bronco that was built for this kind of road. He said he ruined two tires on a previous trip to the peak: they were not off-road tires.
We met at 05:30 where the road leaves the highway and were hiking by 6:30. The route climbs 4200’ in 3 miles. Almost a month after getting COVID for the first time, I still have some days where I feel like two of my six cylinders are missing. But I felt great on this climb.
There is a very steep use trail most of the way up the peak. The top 1/3 of the peak is 3rd and 4th class climbing, and the best route is not always clear looking up. Once the 3rd class starts, it best to stay on the ridge as much as possible.
Even though it was tempting to sneak around the buttresses and steep sections that form this ridge, the best route is usually right on the ridge where the rock is solid. The terrain on the sides of the ridge is steep and loose.
We got to the summit at 10:00. There was plenty of room for two of us to set up wire antennas on summit and weak cell service. I used the KH1 rig with a random wire antenna. The bands were in great shape. I made 49 CW contacts, 7 of which were DX. 15 and 30 meters were the best.
We packed it up after a cold windy hour on the summit. The route down was exciting too because we had to downclimb all the 3rd class climbing, but we made it with no issues. As is usual, you can spot the route much easier looking down.
