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Ridiculously uncurrent - Castle Mtn '19
Breaking my previous PB for lateness in TReporting, I give you this horridly not up to date TR of some of my time well spent at Castle Mt, AB this winter. I do apologize for not getting this up in any semblance of timeliness. As goes with most of my TR's, it's wordy and there's many photos. So, if you're not specifically interested in ever skiing here, feel free to give it a miss. If however you've heard of this mystical old school hill tucked away in the middle of nowhere, and were curious, enjoy. Maybe this will help you bag one of the lines here. It is amazing but it can get tricky fast what with 150km winds common at the top of the Red chair (the height of lift service here). So heads up hockey.
Anyway, here's: A season at Castle.
In a season that was my most in 25 years (95 days at the time of writing this in August), I’m please to report that I managed to ski every named line that I wanted to here this season, and a couple more to boot. Living on hill at Castle was a dream and a rush. Though my damn left knee wasn’t 100% (screw you body) I still managed to get a very good number of days of killer skiing, and a bunch of fun adventuring. Very good snow stability the second last week of my stay allowed for a number of Castle classics to be knocked off my tick list in short order.
I started getting in the groove of skiing some steeper stuff when Mackenzie from Jackson Hole and I skied a line called Lightening. This was fairly early on in my stay here, mid January if memory serves. The ski and weather gods then decided to treat us with much prolonged cold and we were stricken with the polar vortex (does this not sound science fictional? Painful no?), however there were certainly periods of snow (10cms a day for a few days changes this considerably) and some wonderful wind sift filling in pockets all over the hill.
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Wind sift, though I'm sure not unheard of at other hills, is a wonderful Castle phenomenon where the wind blows the snow around but it doesn't necessarily slab up. In fact it fills in tracks more than nicely and is super creamy and carve-able. Due to this feature, the lack of crowds and the continued cold, the hill skied fine regardless of the lack of big dumps. It was a little more difficult to do any bigger backcountry adventures where a small issue at minus 28 becomes a big issue in a hurry, and to be honest my knee was not feeling the love after 46 days in a row. I bided my time skiing powder, going for some light ski touring days with vertical feet skied secondary to babying the knee with plenty of evening knee icing/heating sessions.
After the polar vortex finally fucked off and my knee felt a bit better, my next biggish objective early in March was done in typical fashion for yours truly...
I figured I knew the entrance to Six Shooter but didn’t. Well, to be clear - I thought I did, and then I didn’t, and then at a certain point was convinced I really didn’t, then by half-way down I knew I didn't. Anyway, (thankfully) it went. The skiing was pretty good all things considered. A sporty descent that got adrenaline flowing (from not knowing the line would actually go), and heart pumping (from the 1,900’ vertical drop).
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The start of the fun skiing
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From the bottom. Six Shooter... um.. not. Another SS word though...
The next morning I was debriefing with some pro patrollers on my (mis) adventure and Mitch suggested what I had skied was actually Saddle Sore. And, it generally only gets skied every couple of years....OK then. Saddle Sore it was, and I’m going to suggest my second Castle Classic, though inadvertent, was under my belt.
Next up and a week or so later I managed to connect with an off duty pro patroller named Nate and got to knock off another couple of sporty lines off the top of the Red Chair going North and Northwest into the Syncline drainage.
Six Shooter was our first run on March 9. From the top of the chair a quick traverse gets you to the entrance, from there almost 2,400 vertical feet of couloir. Yehaw! Retirement and getting old doesn’t suck! From the bottom, a quick 30-minute exit and we jumped in one of our two vehicles used for a shuttle back to the resort. Quickly, for we had another line lined up.
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Me heading down
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Nate continuing down a coulior that just kept giving.
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Sadly the best top to bottom shot I managed to get of this beauty (catching not that much really). So many times I was on the other side of the valley and had great opportunities to shoot this beauty top to bottom. Oh well, guess you gotta ski her for yourself to see all of her glory.
Next on this fine day of good stability was El Camino. A hike from the top of the chair and a ski boot traverse across some scree and firm-ish snow gets you to the sporty start. I was glad that Nate had skied this line before as the first pitch involved some route finding through rock bands. A great adventure ski nonetheless and another 2,380 ft of Castle classic knocked off.
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Me humping it along to the ski put on place.
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Nate, puttin em on.
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Me at some point down the run.
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Nate looking like a good skier. Cause he is.
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Smoothly out of the coolie and into a fan.
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But wait, it's not a fan, it's Castle so of course there's another coolie to drop before valley bottom.
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A shot from the bottom of one of the most beautiful things.
On our way out of the drainage from our first lap we ran into a couple that I’d met back in January backcountry skiing in the Syncline area. Mike, Kyra and I chatted about trying to hook up for a ski before we both left the resort a week later. As it turned out, they were both available on March 13, and willing to ski another Castle classic north face line. Plans were hatched to ski Revolver.
Revolver was probably the most technical line thus far. Mike ski cut a small avalanche that helped flush the couloir out and though there were a few turns that required good sluff management, the rest of the ski was uneventful, fun and close to 2000’ vert. We had thought about going back to the resort and skiing Lightening (a coolie I’d done a couple of times earlier in the year), however the stability that we saw on a similar aspect in Revolver and the fact that we were at the base of some wonderful skiing in the Syncline made us change plans. So up we went, another 2000 vert ft., had a nice break while running into some folks from Red Mtn, and finished our day with an excellent ski down to valley bottom. With of course a vehicle strategically placed at the take out on the highway. Another day, and another classic nailed.
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Mike from Co.
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Kyra from here.
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Kyra again.
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A shot from the bottom
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The line starts at ridge top above the top of the pointy stick. Then down the continuous couloir left of the pointy stick to valley bottom.
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Long time local Kyra was not a slouch in the blower pow of the Syncline.
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Mike enjoying the backcountry bliss thing