Word: diamonds
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...three days the crowd down below watched the two men who seemed as small as flyspecks on a steep, 1,000-ft. wall of crumbling granite. It was an attempt to conquer one of the last great unsealed climbs in the U.S.; see SPORT, Mounting the Diamond...
They call it "the Diamond"-a 1,000-ft. slab of granite that slants out from the mountainside like a giant teetering tombstone, and guards the eastern approach to Longs Peak, a 14,256-ft. tower in the Rockies some 75 miles northwest of Denver. The stretch of rock is one of the last great unconquered climbs in the U.S.* Last week a pair of seasoned climbers from California checked their gear and set out to become the first men to mount the Diamond...
...shelf 75 ft. up and toss down a rope for Kamps. From then on, their progress was measured in hours and inches. At dusk, they huddled on a tiny ledge, drove pitons into the sheer rock face and dozed through a night of wind and cold, lashed to the Diamond. At dawn, they struggled...
Because of the outward slant of the Diamond, the pair had to use "tension climbing," searching the expanse of crumbling granite for solid spots, hammering in pitons to build a ladder of rope and expansion belts. Sudden gushes of icy water down crevasses drenched them repeatedly. At times they dangled in space 20 ft. out from the face of the Diamond. As they fought their way up, the acoustics of the mountain carried wisps of their comments to the gathering crowd below: "Say, I think it's getting colder again." Dusk of the second day found them precariously camped...
...backwards to search for a route above. Down below, the spectators stopped talking. Somehow the climbers found a way up the face, around the chock stone, and back into the chimney again. Some 45 minutes later Rearick's crew-cut head slowly appeared over the rim of the Diamond. Another ten minutes and both men were wearily standing together...