I got back yesterday. It was a pretty pathetic all told. Not quite as bad as Justin would like to think. Bailed after the crux of Pervertical. Not even a whole route. North Chimney is a total shitshow, especially with parties rapping down Chasm View. Parties pitching it out really slowed us down so we got to the crux without sunshine. Turns out 5.11 at that altitude is a lot harder than a few thousand feet lower.

Slim was right you have to be a rabid animal. That and you have to be hella lucky. I'd go so far as to say it's a 70/30 split in the luck vs. ability department. If you aren't first in the chimney you're screwed. If there's anyone on the routes ahead of you, you're screwed. If you don't get nice weather you're screwed. Mills wasn't bad though, actually pretty nice up there but one day didn't really make a huge difference in the end.

So in short we failed spectacularly. It was cool though to finally get up there. Beautiful area, great climbing. Have to be better prepared next year for sure. Glad my failure was something people were routing for. How sad is a life like that?

You totally deserved it man! Serves you right for having a little audacity and ambition. Next time you should stick to sport-climbing 5.8s. But then some dude from Wisconsin of all places will tell you that you might as well top-rope. (Isn't that like someone from Kansas trying to tell you how to surf?) You can't top-rope either; everyone hates a noob. Screw it man - just play World of Warcraft; I hear that even gamers aren't as douchy as internet climbers.

Rooting for failure isnt exactly the way of the climbing brotherhood, yes. But you had to ask how to be a real badass in an area where most everybody fails. The Diamond is Special, for a (pardon) 'noob' to be so brash you mighta stepped on a few toes.

Also- very, very few 'successes' are legit, between the Chasm raps and the convenient Table Ledge descent. Its a proper beast up there! I woulda suggested Crack o Delight all the way through Forest Finish as a good barometer for the potential of your potential.

There is a very well written article on failure in the current Alpinist

So it's safe to say that you're not the next Ueli Steck. Glad that's settled.

Nice try Jmeizis. I've had lots of failures and lots of successes on the Diamond. I'm more so proud of many of my failures. On many of my successes, I was never really pushing myself to my limit, where as with most of my failures, I pushed myself farther then I thought I could. That's where the real joy of climbing comes from.

Nice try dude. I think the talk of "crushing" D7 after only climbing FB and the barb sounded a little overconfident, and made people want to see you a little humbled. That's a big scary wall. Pretty much every time I'm on Broadway I'm already tweaked out enough and ready to go home.

Great quote, Chris Sheridan!

"I'm more so proud of many of my failures. On many of my successes, I was never really pushing myself to my limit, where as with most of my failures, I pushed myself farther then I thought I could. That's where the real joy of climbing comes from."

jmeizis, good effort up there. As you found, the clusterfuck factor up there is a major contributor to your success or lack thereof. When people ask me what route to do first on the Diamond, I always recommend Pervertical Sanctuary. It is not the easiest climbing but its straight-forward nature, lack of crowds and straight up and down line make it, I think, a simpler project for first-timers. And if you approach via Field's Chimney, you may never rub shoulders with another climber, let alone climb above or below another party.

How refreshing would that be!

The other thing I advise is for Diamond first ascenters is to do link-up of the Red Wall and Directissima on Chasm View Wall one week before their Diamond attempt. If you can do the routefinding, find and negotiate the Sidewalk descent climb all those pitches and deal with that altitude, then the Diamond will be a gimme.

Climb safe,
Mal

Yeah, I wouldn't say it was a good try...maybe good effort. An awesomely humbling experience. I had no idea what to expect but at least it was a really good learning experience for next time. Couple things to add into posterity now that I've tried it.

1. Altitude adds exponentially to the difficulty of the climbing. My partner said it but I felt it. The 5.9 pitches leading up to the crux had us controlling our breathing and milking rests that we otherwise wouldn't of even noticed. Bring your limit down about a number grade. When we came back down we turned around and noted that the crux pitch of Flying Buttress is below the start of Pervetical. Guess I'm a visual learner.

2. Time is of the essence. A party passed our bivy site around 3:30 and we didn't get up till a little over an hour later. It was nice to sleep in a few hours but not being ahead of everyone else and getting caught behind other parties not only exposed us to more danger but got us started late. Mal, your suggestion to do COD is right on the mark. After bailing we thought of doing Red Wall or Directissima but we decided to go pig out instead. I'm also curious about anyone who's done Shining Slab, the climb to the left of Field's that is apparently a direct start to Pervetical. It looked interesting but the route finding between the two A2 pitches convinced us to go to the N. Chimney.

3. North Chimney is scary! I would have rather soloed it or something else but we got in there and we were already committed. This is truly the crux in my opinion. I've done some scary things and some dumb things willingly but in that place I felt extremely exposed to objective hazards that could have ended the day or worse before even getting on the intended route.

4. Routefinding is super straightforward. The one time when I asked to see the topo was at the crux pitch because I wanted to make sure we went two cracks right of the Obelisk, not one. Reading descriptions that's how a lot of the routes sounded, with a few exceptions.

5. The wall itself wasn't as scary as I thought. A little inhospitable but not as bad as getting there. It's great until the sun goes around the corner. If you're moving slow it becomes very cold.

Justin, having now tried my plan was far more audacious than I could of even imagined. I'm totally going to give it another try next year. Going to build up to it a little more gradually. We talked about doing lots of laps on hard cracks and doing several linkups in the area before giving it a real solid try. It's funny because measured out it's not that big but looking at it, it's such an impressive wall. I don't think there's another wall in CO that combines the length and steepness.

Hopefully, next season I'll post some success pictures and will be a raving crack lunatic eating 5.11's for warmups.

Hey jmeizis,

Sounds like you learned a lot. Big walls and big mountains are another beast compared to hard cragging. Wait till you want to step up to Alaska and Patagonia. You get to keep learning how to climb hard in the big mountains AGAIN an AGAIN.

Just a note on training for altitude. You have to go to altitude. One night or even a week doesn't cut it. Repeated and consistent time up high is what makes the difference.

Go hike Longs peak before breakfast and/or Mountain Athlete/Crossfit.

The Top climbers are always out there going hard. But they they started somewhere. Tommy C with El Cap. Trains hard and climbs hard.

The video about Micah Dash and Jonny Copp. Training hard for big mountains at the gym.

Alex Lowe was the best. Almost like superman but did pullups (400 a day or something) and ski mountaineering before work a 8.

So why did you bail after the crux on PV?

I ask because if you are serious about getting this done you will have to put yourself through hell up there. Climb around or through parties in the north chimney, climb fast on route so people let you pass, don't be bothered by the cold wet weather, and embrace fatigued climbing by headlamp.

In other words..."you have to really want it". This is hard because with an objective that has no summit or physical commitment to complete, bailing is really easy. Linking a lower east face route with the diamond makes more sense - aesthetic, no rappels, and more commitment.

Best of luck next season!
Cheers

It was extremely worthwhile even though we bailed. Yeah, the altitude was sucking the wind out of me. Might not of helped that I spent a week in Iowa beforhand doing nothing but I think spending more time at altitude, even just hiking some 14ers the week beforehand would have helped immensely. One day made it so I wasn't breathing hard just sitting there but did pretty much nothing for my climbing.

We bailed after the crux because I pretty much got the wind taken out of my sails (getting shut down where you thought you'd crush has that effect) and my partner was not psyched on the 4 inch pitch after. Neither was I. We discussed it for a few minutes with chattering teeth. I'd seen the Diamond before but not from that close and when we got up to it we pretty much changed the plan right there. We talked about linking something on the Lower East but decided to just do the N. Chimney, to Pervertical and then take it up to the top through Kieners. I wanted to at least summit Longs if we weren't going to be able to do the big linkup. We figured that even if we got up Pervertical by the time we took Kieners to the top it'd be pretty late in the day. Turns out we were right. The rain and lightning started a few hours after we were down. About the time we'd of been on the summit. There was a party up there that was stuck through that. They were more committed than we, climbed the Casual with one rope, they were like the last party in the que too. So yeah, we didn't want it nearly enough. It's hard to go into something like that in a place you're completely unfamiliar with and charge through. It's a lot more understandable what's involved having now been there. How do you know till you go? At least we didn't spend a bunch of money getting there.

I think next year before trying again I might do a linkup of the Lower East-Diamond-FF. Shorter in length but more committing, less contrived, and good guage of fitness.

The Diamond is super exposed. It's been a really long time since I got that butterflies in the stomach thing from a climb but when we started rapping I definitely had a touch of fear. It's funny my partner had climbed the Casual and said that in comparison it was...well...casual.

It's kind of weird how much the altitude affected the climbing. Take that wall and put it down in Estes and 3 routes on a day there would be very little problem for most parties.

Nice work on trying up there and opening yourself up to some criticism. Most of the diamond isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

My success rate in the park is probably less than 40%. For good reasons and bad reasons but mainly..."It's better to be on the ground wishing I was up there, than be up there wishing I was down on the ground."

I hope you still don't think we were all rooting for you're failure. I was just wondering what kind of jaded bad-ass, would feel the need to climb three routes in a day their first time on that wall. Or should I say, to spray about it before hand (that's a major no-no by the way, climb it FIRST, then spray...) We've all had one too many pints and started spraying like a broken sprinkler about "our project, or link-up blah blah blah..., only to regret it later. Around here, my friends won't tolerate copious pre-shmack like you produced..... Most of the so called "naysayers" on here, were only skeptical because they had already learned many of the lessons you just did. Obviously the climbing up there is hard for several reasons, altitude not the least of them.

Kevin Stricker's comments might have been more positively framed than mine, but he still thought you were full of shit, and that dude knows whats up. I watched him rope solo Curving Vine last year, passing parties on PV like they were standing still. I was up there soloing myself, getting absolutely owned and learning a new set of lessons that day. Number one being-NEVER, NEVER drag a pig up there...NEVER!

Thats what keeps us all going back I suppose, a seemingly endless arena of self discovery awaiting for those willing to catch the occasional beatdown.

Cheers and no hard feelings guy

well, you had the balls to throw it out there. you gave it a shot and got whupped. you had the balls to totally admit (to a tank of phirannas) that you got whupped. you didn't get you or your partner killed. all in all i'm thinkin' no harm no foul.

Haha, well it took getting my ass handed to me to realize everyone was right. As slim said, no harm no foul. I didn't know how much I deserved it till I got on there. I don't think anyone's rooting for my failure. Just a little good natured joking that I misinterpreted at first.

Seriously K, 40% or less? I agree with your point but man that's a lot. Do you just get crapped on with weather or what? I've done less than 10 routes in the park so I wonder if that's why mine is still above 70%.

I still think soloing COD would be preferrable to the N. Chimney. We got stuck at a bottle neck. The party finally allowed us to pass and then me being the dummy I am climbed halfway up the right side of the D1 pillar before my partner asked me where the I was going (it was daylight by then). If you and your partner are going to be swapping leads on something like Casual then I don't think simul climbing COD would be asking too much. Fields Chimney might be good, it looked wet though. I still want to hear from someone who's done Shining Path because it ends right below PV.

N. Chimney was particularly bad in our circumstance because there were 3 or 4 parties in the chimney and 2 coming down the Chasm View raps. Passing was hard and there were a number of large rocks whizzing by our heads. It's kind of a tough decisions to either rope up in case you get hit or solo quickly to minimize the chances of such.

Speaking of hauling there was a party the next day (only ones on the wall). Looked like they were flying up D7. The second appeared to be simultaneously hauling a small pack and belaying the leader. It was impressive to watch.

I'd like to take this opportunity to send out a shout for a good guy making quality product. Have a gander at this here Diamond

A great way to get acquainted with the place while sitting on your couch sipping beers. (or in my case, work/coffee).

That is all, carry on.

SM- l've had a pig up there eight times (once two!) With and without partners. Only once as high as table ledge,that was with the help of the well articulated Chris Sheridan after meeting on Mills with seperate solo ambitions. I havent learned my lesson. Sometimes you gotta go slow and heavy,it can get prettyalpine, after all.

Light and fast is The Way. La Dolce Vita is gonna require a ledge...? If you go heavy its cause youre prepared, and then yougotta suffer and get it done. Bailing sucks, and so does moving a haulbag anywhere.

But the Diamond is convenient, I'd say its lotsa fun to go find out for yourself

Soloing COD was brought up-it should be belayed. N Chimney is significantly quicker

This thread is spectacular. It's nice to see all of the support after the effort . . . it makes me think you'll have some folks openly rooting for you on your next ascent - even if it "only" ends up being one route. Sounds like you had an extremely valuable experience.

I am curious if and how your motivation/focus may have been impacted (from your point of view - you seem very open and honest regarding reflection of the experience) by sharing your plans and discussing them online - perhaps some level of anxiety crept in there that wouldn't have otherwise, or made the initial goal and related effort more pure? It seemed to set up an "all or nothing" frame of mind.