Colorado climbers Jesse Huey, Matt Segal and their Canadian friend Quentin Roberts recently completed a winter, mixed-style free ascent of D7 on the Diamond of Longs Peak (Neniisoteyou’u, 14,255′). Though they used ice axes to dry tool the thin cracks of the 5.11+ route, they did not use crampons to avoid leaving scratch marks on one of the state’s most classic alpine climbs. There were also short sections that required bare hands to climb. All three climbed the ca. 600-foot route without jumaring to clean and follow the pitches.
“A team free ascent was really important to all of us,” Huey told Alpinist over the phone. He said that style was much slower than having a dedicated supporter following on jumars. “Transitioning from freezing at the belay to climbing took time,” he said. A key strategy was carrying down booties on their harnesses to change into at belays, rather than lugging up heavy boots.
Besides that, they made extra accommodations to include photographer Jon Glassberg.
They set out March 11 and summited March 13 after spending two nights on Broadway ledge, which sits at about 13,000 feet at the base of the Diamond. Huey said that they had reached the top of the crux pitch at around 4 p.m. March 12. With two pitches remaining, they could have likely finished the remaining two pitches and summited late in the day, Huey said, but they decided to rappel and re-lead the pitch for top-down photos. They jumared to their high point on March 13 and finished the climb in time for sunny summit photos. Huey expressed mixed feelings about the compromised style for the sake of documenting the climb.
Huey has made at least one attempt each calendar winter since 2018 to free climb D7, with Segal joining him since 2020. When Roberts agreed to partner with them for this season’s attempt, they had a team with substantial experience on extreme alpine routes.
In 2023, Huey, Segal and California granite ace Jordan Cannon completed the second free ascent of Cowboy Direct (VII 5.13) on Trango (aka Nameless) Tower in Pakistan. The conditions for free climbing at 6251 meters (20,509′) in summer were significant, not unlike what they recently encountered at nearly 14,000 feet on the Diamond in winter.
As for his part, last November Roberts and his partner Alik Berg received a Piolet d’Or for their 2022 ascent of a new route, Reino Hongo (M7 AI5+ 90°, 1000m), on the south-southeast spur of Jirishanca (ca. 6094m), Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru. (An interview with Roberts about his career was recently published on The Enormocast podcast.)
Huey said that having a third person to share the load and the chores, such as melting snow for water, made a huge difference.
On December 21, 2024, the first calendar day of winter, Chris Deuto completed a rope-solo free ascent of the Casual Route (IV 5.10a). He climbed bare-handed and sustained some frostbite. (A interview with him can be found on The Runout Podcast.)
“It’s been a low-snow year, for sure,” Huey said. Good winter free-climbing conditions on the mountain translated to highs above 70°F around Boulder, he added. “It was so much more tempting to just enjoy fun, sunny conditions around here.”
But Huey has been feeling the clock ticking to finish his bucket-list objectives because his wife is expecting to deliver their baby this spring. “I’m trying to get it all done!” he said.
