Diamond Peak road access?

[Das Beerd]

Has anyone been up to get some turns on DP lately? I'm wondering what the road looks like and how close you can get.

 

Thanks!

[Snowman_Jim]

About three weeks or so ago it was possible to drive maybe half way up Pioneer Gulch. This was during the heat wave we had. I skied up the road to the wilderness boundary but the snowpack was slush to the ground in the clear cuts even in the am so I bailed out.

 

The paved road as far as Indigo Springs is in fine shape. There are a few places where washouts are being fixed but they are set up with one-lane bypasses. Just past Indigo Springs but before Pioneer Gulch there were some downed trees blocking part of the road that were easily passed. But if its dark drive slowly.

 

Pioneer Gulch had some trees down but they had either been cleared enough to get around, or they could be driven over/under. I'm guessing it was just under 4000' where I hit snow. From there up the snow on the road was nearly continuous and mostly pretty deep. I don't know how much has melted since then, but I doubt all of it has.

 

It wasn't all that much extra distance, but leave some extra time to ski/walk up the road.

 

There was very little snow left in the forest below at least 5000' at that time. It was all on the road, and the clearcuts had a shallow but continuous snowpack. Despite the snow on the road you may end up carrying skis from the wilderness boundary up a ways where you are under a think canopy.

 

Remember this was about 3 weeks ago.

 

Jim