Castle Mountain, AB 01/28/2017 01/29/2017

Castle Mtn is another one of those amazing "below the radar" facilities North of our border.  This place is yooge, boasting the longest continuous fall line in North America.  Access is via a long dirt/gravel road, and amenities are rather limited, so I would not describe this as your typical destination resort.  The lifts are classic, and the terrain is big.   There is a T-bar that runs up the center of the mountain rising over 1,700 vf.  We won't ride it, but I would imagine it's over a 15 minute ride. With almost 3,000 vertical rise spread over about 3,000 acres, I don't think place would ever get boring.  

We booked spots on the Powder Stage Coach a few weeks ago.  This is their "lift assisted" cat skiing operation.  Our expectations were low based on the snow we observed in Fernie.  All things considered, it was an awesome day.  The guides found us plenty of soft snow (some of it was even untracked).  From the top of the Huckleberry chair, we took 8 trips up the ridge, and bagged about 17k of descending vertical.  We rode mainly pleasant pitches (32-35 degrees) through open bowls and perfectly spaced trees.  I would highly recommend this option if you make it over to Castle... I can only imagine how awesome it would be with good snow.  The vibe was super laid back, and we left with big smiles despite the subpar snow conditions.  For a day that includes breakfast, lunch, avy kit and a beer it was about $250.

View from one of the drop off spots later in the day


The guides
 

Our supplemental transportation


On the Mountain


The GPS track


Anfo the Avy dog on call just in case there are any issues


Riding the lifts here today, and then finishing up at Whitefish tomorrow.

I like the lift serviced terrain at Castle much more than the snowcat stuff.
What say you?
I'm outta town,otherwise I would offer to ski with you in wf.

2000yearoldskier wrote

I like the lift serviced terrain at Castle much more than the snowcat stuff.
What say you?

I totally agree.  Even with only a limited sample of the Red Chair terrain, I think the lift service stuff would be absolutely mind-blowing with good snow.

Mostly clear skies with mild temps today.  Unfortunately, it was wind-sanity.  The Red chair was on hold a couple of times.  I can only imagine the fun this zone produces in a good storm cycle.  The views of the "Chutes" from the Huckleberry chair are a bit intimidating, so we stayed primarily to the lookers far right.  We took a couple of runs on the lookers left, but the sun had not really softened things up yet, so it was still a bit scratchy. On the looker's far right side, the trees captured lots of wind transported snow, so there were soft turns in the glades from the get go.  

Overall, I think this place is awesome.  A return visit is already on the table.


Riding the Red Chair


Upper Basin... nothing good in here.... everything blew over to the looker's right.
 

You can really see the wind transport in this shot... there are also some cool lenticular formations just above the ridge


Bluebird on the Blue Chair

2000yearoldskier wrote

I'm outta town,otherwise I would offer to ski with you in wf.

Thanks for the offer.  I really appreciate local knowledge.  I may be back with my wife in a couple of weeks.  Will let you know.

Good work as always. Do you carry a GPS with you or use an app?

Brownski wrote

Good work as always. Do you carry a GPS with you or use an app?

Thanks Brownski.  I'm a GPS guy.  I have a Garmin 910XT.