Castle Peak East Face Ski
Last Friday a group of us climbed Castle Peak (14,265 ft) and skied its east face route, a classic Elk Range line and one that I’d been looking at for several years. The day went off without a hitch as a recent storm had deposited a good amount of snow high on the face, which settled nicely and made for a great corn run down into Castle Creek. This snow year has been a bit of an odd duck with tons of snow falling east of the divide but much of the rest of the state remaining below average. Read more…
Jon, Matt, Jon‘s buddy Nate, and I motored to Aspen this past Friday night with the intent of skiing Castle and Conundrum. We were able to drive up the Montezuma road to around 10,800 ft (there was no use trying to get higher due to a monster snow drift blocking the road). It‘s not the best elevation I‘ve ever achieved on this road but it was good enough. Bivy sacks and sleeping bags went down next to the car and the four of us were asleep shortly after. The alarm went off at 3:30am and we hit the trail at 4:30. Thanks to Matt‘s killer pace right out of the gate we were able to reach the top of the jeep trail in an hour and a half, seeing a sunrise from this basin is one of the better experiences I‘ve had in the mountains this year.