Climbing Diamond Peak

I climbed Diamond Peak today with my buddy Matt. It was a great climb and I can't think of many better ways to spend a Labor Day than "laboring" up the side of a mountain. At 8750', I would describe this climb as "strenuous" but not overly challenging- it was about 9.5 miles round trip and we gained around 4000' of elevation. The weather was just about picture perfect and Matt's GPS helped us from becoming lost. Diamond Peak is about 90 minutes outside of Eugene and it's a mountain I've wanted to climb for awhile now. I was grateful for the opportunity to get up to the summit before we head north to the Emerald City in just over two weeks.



This is Matt thinking "If I only had my fishing pole right now!" as he ponders Marie Lake

This is a view from the false summit looking up the ridge leading to the true summit. We saw 7 people all day, all of whom we ran into either on the summit or along this ridgeline.

Climbing the final ridge to the summit. You'll notice that there were still scant amounts of snow on the ground.

The view from the summit

Behind that smile he is probably thinking, "What did I let Wilson get me into this time!" (In all seriousness, Matt was an awesome hiking/climbing partner and he kept up both a great pace and lively banter. He even was able to whip up some tuna fish on top of the mountain!)

Behind that smile he is probably thinking, "Wow...my legs are really sore."

Thankfully there were a few other people on top to snap this picture of us.