My friend wants to come down from the northwest (who I know to be very expierienced at alpine climbing) to climb the Casual Route on the Diamond and said it would be doable this winter. Before I commit (me not being expierienced at alpine) to planning, I just want to get some feedback from a few more sources. I appriciate any help!

Cheers

Will you be trying to aid or free it?

While anything is possible I'd advise you to look at D7 instead, as a winter route.

Casual is right in the middle of a couple of water courses and that traverse pitch could be quite problematic.

Either way Have a good time!

josh

No doubt, there are guys in Boulder who could do it in a swimsuit, but my advice would be to do it in summer to get a feel for the wall before tackling it in the cold. I experienced some very exciting falling ice on a September Diamond climb. A winter experience is well beyond my appetite for adventure.

I've tried this several times over the years and have yet to succeed. Last year I tried several times determined to keep trying until it happened. Unfortunately, by the time it happened, it was May. It's still pretty hard that time of year, but definitely not as hard as a true winter ascent. That being said, some of the "winter" ascents have been in really warm weather.

Many people consider getting up the North Chimney to be the crux. Here's a write up I did for the time that I climbed the North Chimney leading up to a successful ascent of D7:

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/co_ice__mixed/rmnp>>>>>

Some people will tell you that climbing this route in a day is the only way to simplify the logistics enough for a successful ascent. If that's your strategy, plan on a very long day, and to attempt this, you're going to want to have lots of other long days under your belt before your attempt.

The other strategy is to bivi on Broadway. This starts to get complicated when you think about the descent route. If you carry all your gear up and over, you can come down the north face. However, carrying bivi gear up the diamond will likely slow you down so much that you woln't be able to make it from Broadway to Table ledge in a day. Lead an iced up aid pitch with gloves on in the middle of the winter and time how long it takes you to get 100ft. You'll be amazed.

Leaving your bivi gear on Broadway has its own set of problems. If you plan on making it to the summit, you'll be doing some scary downclimbing late at night to get back to Table ledge. Then after that there are the wondering rappels down the diamond to get back to your bivi gear. I've seen lots of people mess this up in the middle of a sunny summer day.

Anyway, I hope this gives you a reasonably accurate feel for the difficulties. I"m not trying to sway your decision any way, just want to give you the information you need.

I concur with Thompson - go for D7. The mandatory free parts of Casual Route (traversing pitch 2 on what would likely be little snow covered ledges) would possibly make it more difficult in winter.

Regardless, getting up North Chim in winter conditinons is the crux.