Castle East Face Ski

Partners: J Weingast, Andrew Hollenbeck
Date: 05/24/2021
Trailhead: Castle Creek (parked at the creek crossing)
Summits: Conundrum & Castle
Distance: 12 Miles
Elevation Gain: 5000ft
Time: 9.25 Hours
GPX

At 5:00am J, Andrew and I shuttled from the lower trailhead to where the road crosses Castle Creek. We hiked the road in trail runners on firm snow to just below the upper basin. At this point we transitioned to skins and it wasn't long before we donned ski crampons and climbed to the upper basin between Castle and Conundrum. At the base of Conundrum Couloir we transtioned to crampons, climbed the coulie and summitted Conundrum Peak. Climbing the couloir took about 25 minutes. The views of Castle's north face were incredible from the summit.

Skiing Conundrum Couloir was a mixed bag... it was an amazing place to be, but the snow was bullet and entrance felt steeper than it did on the climb. We entered the couloir one at at time and skied conservatively until the snow softened midway down.

From the base of Conundrum Couloir we traversed to the bottom of Castle's north face couloir where we transitioned to booting. After wallowing in deep cold powder for a bit we transitioned back to skins. The skinning was steep however it worked much better than booting. The snow was wintery cold and midway up I had skin adheasion problems and switched back to booting which worked much better up high. J was able to skin to the top of the couloir where we met up and booted the rest of the way to the summit.

Castle's summit views were off the hook. The Elk's big boys (Pyramid, the Bells, Snowmass and Capital) were stunning under the blue skys and warming temperatures. We spent a short time taking it all in before stepping into our skis and making our way over to Castle's east face.

The first few turns off of the summit were exciting and the snow was firm. However after a turn or two we found ourselves on corn. We skied the ridge south until spotting an obvious line which dropped all the way to the basin below the east face. We skied one at a time to the basin floor. The skiing was playful and fun and we had to manage wet sluff most of the way down... but man o man what a classic line!

At the base of Castle's east face we admired our line and took in the awe inspiring place we found ourselves in. We soon cruised some fast and fun corn to the Tagert Hut where we relaxed and reflected on the day. Our only mistake was not bringing beer!

From Tagert we were able to ski to within a quarter mile of the truck where the beer was waiting.

What a great day!

Photos by all