Castle’s recent weather has been warmer than Fernie’s, when it’s usually the other way around. Clouds came in overnight and Castle was in the 20’sF all day. There were patches of blue sky in the morning but clouds thickened by early afternoon. I took my warmup run on the Haig lift. From there is a good view of the main mountain’s south side chutes (left) and Drifter/Showdown (right).
I rode the 2 chairs to the top. View up the valley toward Beaver Mines.
Castle is one of those places like Baldy with cell reception only at the top of the mountain. At the base area only the T-Bar Pub ‘n Grub restaurant has free WiFi.
I usually alternate upper half and top to bottom runs here. I started with Sheriff, an open bowl skier’s left of the Tamarack chair.
Sheriff was difficult and inconsistent skiing. There were a lot of hard chunks at the top, probably created from grooming the Skyline Traverse above it. Lower down it was more windpack but quite irregular. The chronic wind often smooths out the snow, but there was almost no wind today. The prior warm and sunny days affected the runs with partial south exposure. The snow was not melt/frozen but it was packed in much firmer than in more sheltered exposures I found later.
My next run was Drifter, usually one of my favorite runs anywhere.
It’s 2,000 vertical and wide through these scattered trees, which provide a frame of reference for skiing on snowy powder days. Despite partial southeast exposure the snow was more consistent than Sheriff and not quite as firm.
Next lap up my short run was Tamarack Bowl with much softer and smoother snow.
I had to sample one south side chute. I chose Desperado here.
The long steep part was mostly smooth chalk while the short runout to the groomed Cinch Traverse had more irregular snow. Castle only grooms a few runs on the main mountain, but surface quality of the groomers was quite good, on average better than the prior two days at Fernie and Kicking Horse.
Next up I skied soft snow near the liftline of Tamarack first, then headed out the Skyline Traverse to the north side of Castle. Upper Powder Horns/North Bowl had the softest snow I had skied so far.
It’s still a 2000+ vert long and steep run, so I went into lunch for a break.
After lunch I skied Huckleberry Ridge to the short but steep Showboat, then not quite as far out north to Siwash. My final run I went back up top and skied the entire Huckleberry Ridge. At the nose of the ridge I stopped for pics. View north across the top of the blue chair and base of Tamarack.
View south to Haig, which has snowcat skiing above and beyond the groomers in the pic.
View down the Burn which I next skied to the base.
I persisted for 20,800 vertical despite legs getting more worn out each day. Friday and Saturday will likely be shorter ski days with the following weather prediction.
Best case is predicted high in C. Worst case includes wind chill.
I’ve been very spoiled by my previous 5 days at Castle, which included 3 big powder days. This time I needed to explore some to figure out where the best snow was. Nonetheless the scale of terrain is so huge you could confine yourself to a small sector of it and never get bored.
I rode the 2 chairs to the top. View up the valley toward Beaver Mines.
Castle is one of those places like Baldy with cell reception only at the top of the mountain. At the base area only the T-Bar Pub ‘n Grub restaurant has free WiFi.
I usually alternate upper half and top to bottom runs here. I started with Sheriff, an open bowl skier’s left of the Tamarack chair.
Sheriff was difficult and inconsistent skiing. There were a lot of hard chunks at the top, probably created from grooming the Skyline Traverse above it. Lower down it was more windpack but quite irregular. The chronic wind often smooths out the snow, but there was almost no wind today. The prior warm and sunny days affected the runs with partial south exposure. The snow was not melt/frozen but it was packed in much firmer than in more sheltered exposures I found later.
My next run was Drifter, usually one of my favorite runs anywhere.
It’s 2,000 vertical and wide through these scattered trees, which provide a frame of reference for skiing on snowy powder days. Despite partial southeast exposure the snow was more consistent than Sheriff and not quite as firm.
Next lap up my short run was Tamarack Bowl with much softer and smoother snow.
I had to sample one south side chute. I chose Desperado here.
The long steep part was mostly smooth chalk while the short runout to the groomed Cinch Traverse had more irregular snow. Castle only grooms a few runs on the main mountain, but surface quality of the groomers was quite good, on average better than the prior two days at Fernie and Kicking Horse.
Next up I skied soft snow near the liftline of Tamarack first, then headed out the Skyline Traverse to the north side of Castle. Upper Powder Horns/North Bowl had the softest snow I had skied so far.
It’s still a 2000+ vert long and steep run, so I went into lunch for a break.
After lunch I skied Huckleberry Ridge to the short but steep Showboat, then not quite as far out north to Siwash. My final run I went back up top and skied the entire Huckleberry Ridge. At the nose of the ridge I stopped for pics. View north across the top of the blue chair and base of Tamarack.
View south to Haig, which has snowcat skiing above and beyond the groomers in the pic.
View down the Burn which I next skied to the base.
I persisted for 20,800 vertical despite legs getting more worn out each day. Friday and Saturday will likely be shorter ski days with the following weather prediction.
Best case is predicted high in C. Worst case includes wind chill.
I’ve been very spoiled by my previous 5 days at Castle, which included 3 big powder days. This time I needed to explore some to figure out where the best snow was. Nonetheless the scale of terrain is so huge you could confine yourself to a small sector of it and never get bored.