After a successful hike of Bunker Hill in Lander County, I made the easy 80-mile drive east along US-50 to my next objective, Diamond Peak in Eureka County. Eureka County has virtually no inhabitants: maybe just about a thousand, most of them living in the town of Eureka, the county seat. The Diamond Mountains rose east of town, still containing a good amount of snow on them. It was about 5 p.m. when I got into Eureka. I ate dinner at a cafe in town, bought some supplies at the market, then decided to wimp out and spend the $30 for a hotel room rather than camp. The warm shower and comfy bed was worth every penny!

Early the next morning I awoke and got on the road. The route to the trailhead is easy: from the north end of Eureka, turn right onto County Road 101, marked "Dump Site" on the main highway. Go north on this road about a mile then turn right (east) following the signs to the County Landfill. Where the pavement ended, I stayed straight (going right would've taken me to the landfill) and followed Newark Canyon Road, a well-maintained gravel road. Newark Canyon Road passes one ranch (Baumann) early on, and the cattle were everywhere so I drove carefully. The road entered the main canyon and about 10 miles from the pavement, it came out into a meadow. Here, I turned left (north) onto a sketchier dirt road and followed it as it gained about 1,000 vertical feet. I had to cross a gate and use 4-wheel drive to make it up, including one short stretch of snow, which required three efforts to get past. I parked at a saddle at elevation 8,400 feet, just west of Alpha Peak. It was almost 7 a.m. when I dressed up and started in. The weather was pleasant but very cold in the shadows.

From where I started there were two options: go east up a steep 4wd path (way too muddy for my vehicle) or north down into a spring (again, looked pretty goopy). I decided to hike east up the Alpha Peak flank then north down to the saddle at just below 8,800 feet. From here I had a great view of my route and of Diamond Peak (actually, just the foreground peak which obscured the true highpoint). At this saddle I found a very faint use trail that led partway up the hill immediately to my left (west). I hiked up and over this hill then down a bit, eventually coming upon another decent use trail. For the next mile or so, I hiked north along the ridge, generally staying level but often gaining and losing 50-100 feet in short stretches as I found and lost the various trails. It's evident some trails are human origin, and judging by the poop on the ground people bring their horses up here, too. The ridge looked pretty rocky and exposed from where I started but it was actually very safe. At worst I followed a ledge of sorts below a rocky outcrop and had to scramble here and there to avoid brush and snow. This route reached a saddle at about 8,820 feet then starts a short but quick 500-foot climb up and past a rocky knob at 9,320+ feet. Here, although tempted by game trails, I found it wisest to stay as high as possible at all times. I made decent time and got past this knob, placing myself just below the final big hike up the steep slopes of the summit itself.

I found a very well-defined trail and followed it, quickly gaining about 600 feet. This put me below my most challenging obstacle: a large snowbank sitting right on the trail. It was too steep to safely cross so I skirted it by staying east and hiking up to a small band of rocks which allowed me a passage past this snow patch. These rocks required some class-3 scrambling and went well except that the rocks were very loose in places. For that reason I decided to not come down this same way on my descent. Once past this portion, I again found faint paths that just led up the moderately steep rocky slopes toward the false summit at 10,480 feet. There was much snow but mostly on the fringes; I only had to walk over a couple of short stretches. The summit was visible, just a few hundred feet north and about 150 feet higher. I made the top at about 10:30 a.m. The views, as usual were outstanding in all directions: the Rubys to the north, the Schell and White Pine Ranges to the east, and the Monitor and Toquima Ranges to the west. I could barely make out the Toiyabe Range way on the western horizon, while looking as far east as possible, I could see the Snake Range which held the 13,000-foot Wheeler Peak, which I did a year ago. I spent just about 15 minutes on the summit, highlighted by crushing my finger between some rocks while looking for a log book. Plenty of Ladybugs to keep me company!

The hike down went quick, although I took plenty of breaks to admire the views. The only tricky bit was that snowbank: this time I skirted it on its west side, which was full of very loose scree, which I took very slowly, aided by my trekking poles. Other than that I made great time and hiked quickly. I was back at the 8,800-foot saddle just north of my truck in about an hour and a half. I walked the other route back to my truck just for variation's sake, and finally got back to my truck just before 1 p.m. After changing into more comfortable clothes, I drove back west 180 miles to Fallon, where I stayed the night before my flight home to Phoenix the next day.