Mount Diablo Seven Peaks (with Ransom Point)

This was my first time stringing together the full Diablo multi-peak loop, and I decided to make it harder right out of the gate by adding a seventh summit — Ransom Point — onto the standard six. The day started early and foggy, with sunbeams breaking through a marine layer sitting low in the canyons below Mitchell Canyon, that classic Bay Area combination of fog, light rays, and green hillsides that makes the early miles feel like a reward before the real climbing even starts.

The route hit the usual suspects in order — Mitchell Rock, Twin Peaks, and Eagle Peak on the way out along the ridge, then Mount Diablo's main summit at 3,849 feet, North Peak just across the gap, and Mount Olympia's short, brutally steep pitch. Each one has its own character: Eagle Peak narrows down to barely a knife-edge with room to stand, Mitchell Rock is a completely different rust-colored rock from everything else on the mountain, and North Peak feels like Diablo's wilder, road-less twin.

Ransom Point was the one that made this day different from the standard loop. There's no real trail to it — just a steep, off-trail push straight through thick manzanita, the kind of brush that doesn't part for you so much as grab onto every layer of clothing you're wearing and refuse to let go. It was slow, scratchy, and by far the hardest part of the day, but I got to the top of it, which is more than I can say for how my arms looked afterward.

Seven peaks, about 15 miles, and one seriously earned scratch collection by the end of the day. The six-peak version of this loop is hard enough on its own — tacking on Ransom Point through unmaintained manzanita made this one of the toughest days I'd had on the mountain up to that point.