I returned to Castle Saturday as I was flying home 7:20PM from Calgary. I had met a mother and son from New Zealand in my Fernie hotel and offered to show them around as they were also going to Calgary Saturday evening. However we never made the connection as Castle’s lodge was packed and the upper Tamarack chair was closed for strong winds. This combination meant lift lines on the lower lifts all day. This was also the first time I’ve seen Castle so busy that I had to park in its North Lot instead of the South Lot near the lodge and office.
I waited for the NZ people 10:00-to 10:30, then tried the Huckleberry chair. It stopped a couple of times so I got good views of Drifter:
And the South Chutes:
Both of these are surely loaded with windsift as in 2018 considering how much loose snow was on the lower mountain, including the Huckleberry groomers.
With the liftline and chair stoppages the Huckleberry lap took half an hour so I went for the T-bar, which also goes slightly higher than the Blue chair. The local with whom I shared the T-bar told me there was a cat road out to the north side where I could get some untracked windsift. The road was quite flat but the wind at my back was an assist. The windsift was worth the effort, views up and down, probably on Lower Chinook:
Why was Tamarack closed? Here’s the view up from top of Blue chair.
None of that is cloud or fog; it’s all blowing snow.
Even the Centre run under the Blue chair had a layer of soft snow over a usually firm packed groomer. The Blue chair fortunately had a singles line which almost no one was using.
Traverses south from Blue Chair lead to short sections of subalpine like Enchanted Forest dropping into steep groomers Mouse Trap and Jelly roll. Traversing south from the T-bar got me a longer section of subalpine on lower Trapper. Views down and across from there:
I ordered a pizza from the T-Bar Pub before may last run, which was Shotgun North, a very narrow gully that I normally avoid but figured correctly that it would be loaded with windsift today. What I did not figure is that the wind strengthened and the Blue chair crawled up the hill with a couple of stoppages. So the planned last lap of 20 minutes became 35. I skied to the car and moved it up to the base area where I could get the pizza, then change clothes for my flight in the office. I skied 12,800 vertical, light on quantity with the short day and busy lifts but high on quality. Whenever the upper mountain opens next, it’s going to be sweet like 2018.
I expected windsift on the road leaving Castle, but it persisted through Pincher Creek, east on Hwy 3, and even for awhile on the divided Hwy 2 toward Calgary. Here's a view on Hwy 3:
Obviously an appropriate spot for the wind turbines.
I thought I might be cutting it close on my flight, but the road was clean after 4PM and I got to the gas station by Calgary airport by 5:30. Thee were no screwups on the flight home, but LAX was a zoo, and when I claimed my ski bag, therre was a roped off area with at least 300 bags that had been hung up due to cancelled flights. LA's rain was not the reason for cancellations; I don't know which airports had problems.
I waited for the NZ people 10:00-to 10:30, then tried the Huckleberry chair. It stopped a couple of times so I got good views of Drifter:
And the South Chutes:
Both of these are surely loaded with windsift as in 2018 considering how much loose snow was on the lower mountain, including the Huckleberry groomers.
With the liftline and chair stoppages the Huckleberry lap took half an hour so I went for the T-bar, which also goes slightly higher than the Blue chair. The local with whom I shared the T-bar told me there was a cat road out to the north side where I could get some untracked windsift. The road was quite flat but the wind at my back was an assist. The windsift was worth the effort, views up and down, probably on Lower Chinook:
Why was Tamarack closed? Here’s the view up from top of Blue chair.
None of that is cloud or fog; it’s all blowing snow.
Even the Centre run under the Blue chair had a layer of soft snow over a usually firm packed groomer. The Blue chair fortunately had a singles line which almost no one was using.
Traverses south from Blue Chair lead to short sections of subalpine like Enchanted Forest dropping into steep groomers Mouse Trap and Jelly roll. Traversing south from the T-bar got me a longer section of subalpine on lower Trapper. Views down and across from there:
I ordered a pizza from the T-Bar Pub before may last run, which was Shotgun North, a very narrow gully that I normally avoid but figured correctly that it would be loaded with windsift today. What I did not figure is that the wind strengthened and the Blue chair crawled up the hill with a couple of stoppages. So the planned last lap of 20 minutes became 35. I skied to the car and moved it up to the base area where I could get the pizza, then change clothes for my flight in the office. I skied 12,800 vertical, light on quantity with the short day and busy lifts but high on quality. Whenever the upper mountain opens next, it’s going to be sweet like 2018.
I expected windsift on the road leaving Castle, but it persisted through Pincher Creek, east on Hwy 3, and even for awhile on the divided Hwy 2 toward Calgary. Here's a view on Hwy 3:
Obviously an appropriate spot for the wind turbines.
I thought I might be cutting it close on my flight, but the road was clean after 4PM and I got to the gas station by Calgary airport by 5:30. Thee were no screwups on the flight home, but LAX was a zoo, and when I claimed my ski bag, therre was a roped off area with at least 300 bags that had been hung up due to cancelled flights. LA's rain was not the reason for cancellations; I don't know which airports had problems.
