Castleabra/Mt Raoul: Elks in Dungeon

If you don't want to come along on the journey that is Elks in Dungeon, feel free to scroll to the very bottom for the GPX and summary stats.

I spent a lot of time going over everything I could find on this peak. I did this because one of my many side quests to the centennial peaks was to finish everything above 13,800ft before completing that list. The other thing I've spent a lot of time doing is rewatching Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) because I miss everything about Japan but primarily the food. Anyways, I found that there are three main route options:

1. Willow Sufferfest from Cumberland Basin/Pearl Pass
2. Loose Rock Sufferfest West Gully from the hot springs
3. Sloman Couloir in the spring

Given my hatred of loose rock, option 3 appealed to me the most. In some trip reports I found that parties would ski down on the west side of the castle/con saddle and ascend via a "short ascent couloir" and drop into Sloman from the summit. Interesting--as I am not a great skier I really liked having an option to a descend a more mellow line if I didn't feel up to task on the big line. And so I waited for the perfect chance to arrive--I needed cold temps for a route this long and consolidated snow.

A plan began to form with a great group of dudes to fast pack in, drop packs, summit the peak, pack up to the hot springs, and pack out the next day. When forming plans like this you need a good party so to speak with matching skills and determination. Alas, in mid-April the chance arrived with a nice refresh a few days prior, low avy danger, and very (very) cold temps. Mark, Dave, Patrick, Ryan, and I would form an A team of accomplished splitboarders, skiers, and myself who is neither of these things. This was a strong crew for an epic objective. I really feel like the skills required to ski/board pack, winter camp, and summit a peak are pretty niche. Maybe Mark is more like Senshi with clear headedness and intuition. Maybe Dave is like Laois with pure drive and adventure. Maybe Patrick is like Chilchuck with wit and unique skills. Maybe Ryan is like Marcille with some dark magic skills no one understands. I guess that would make me Falin or Itzusumi. Since I don't have anime girl boobs, let's go with Itzusumi--a weird outsider than comes in to get the job done when it matters.

We all arrived at the trailhead to car sleep before setting off at 3am. Fresh snow was falling as we started our pack in with stupid heavy packs. We found that by the time the sun rose to light up the basin, we were no where near the river crossing where we'd planned to drop our packs. With the cold temps, I didn't fret as I felt just fine. As the sun rose higher and we navigated the trail, I was getting fed up carrying my skis on my pack--I decided to transition into my ski boots and attempt to skin. This attempt was costly as we were miles away from where I could actually skin. Dave was up ahead trudging through with boots. My choice cost precious time with the number of transitions until we got the first point after a few willow patch clearings. Snowalien had crossed further up the trail but we decided to go with a different line and see what we'd find. Indeed, after some time spent searching, we found a nice spot to cross. After crossing, we found a more open spot to drop packs. It was 11am--much later than any of us had hoped.

Still, we decided to press on to see what the basin held in store for us. There was some tough bushwhack skinning to get above the trees where things finally looked better. We navigated a bit further looker's right than we should have causing some sidehilling before reaching what we'd named "Mark's Gate". This rock gate is where you must pass through to enter the basin. (I mean I'm sure you go take the much steeper, sidehilly way, but why?) Once at Mark's Gate at 1pm, it was truly decision time. This basin feels vast and it's these types of place that make me love ski touring.

We still had to pack up to the hot springs to camp after all. We decided to explore as many options as possible and split the group with a hard turn around time of 4pm. Turning at 4pm would give us enough time to ski down, get to camp, and set up camp before dark. Mark, Dave, and Patrick headed for Sloman to see how far they would get and ski some great snow either way. Ryan and I wanted to explore the short ascent couloir as we couldn't see it yet and didn't even know if it was truly in. Ryan and I skinned on mellow terrain all the way to the base of the couloir before transitioning to crampons and wading through the snow. In reality, the couloir is only about 200ft not 400ft as it is wide open to the base of it. We'd kick 4-5 times and then still slip down slightly into the step we'd just made. They found similar conditions booting up Sloman--great for descending but hell for going up. Higher up in the couloir, we could finally get a view of the peak and Ryan found rocks under a thin cover of snow. The peak looked simple from the top out but not super close--I guessed it would be a 1.5hr commitment to get there and back. The other group radioed that it was heartbreaking, but they were turning around. We were at 13,400ft and it was 4pm. We turned around too and booted down to a better transition spot to ski to the base of sloman to meet up with the rest of the crew. Despite the very excellent ski conditions of soft turns, it sucked. I felt extremely certain that the decision to bail was the only reasonable decision but that still stings. Getting humbled like that is tough to take for me and I felt like I'd let the group down with this plan.

It was a huge effort to get to that point and we still had to pack into camp. I radioed to ask that the group wait for us to ski to them so we could descend to the pack drop together. I feel bad now and they waited for a bit longer than was fair as we skied pretty slowly over to them. We took a gully marked as a descent route which avoided the dense trees to get back to our packs. We took a good break then trudged onwards. We stayed on that west side of the river as there was no need to get back to the trail to get to the hot springs and this was pretty efficient. We camped on snow and just found whatever spot looked best (I'll note here that we did have camping permits for spots 4 and 5 but we never found the actual signs for them). After water was filtered, tents were set up, and dinner was steeping (?), we all took a breath of relief. Ryan and I actually ate our dinner in the hot springs and felt a bit better about life before settling in to the tent for the night. It was so cold. The cold temps all day that had provided great skiing conditions meant wicked cold night temps. I had imagined us all enjoying dinner together watching the sun set looking above at the peak we'd summitted, but it was not to be this time.

I'm not sure any of us slept well and we all were up before the sun hit our tents. We needed firm snow to pack out on so we were all packed up and on our way by 8am. We booted out the entire way to the car. All of the fresh snow from the previous morning had melted out but things did stay firm enough for us to avoid any postholing. We all fought our own battles to make it out of there--it was brutal. Each section felt longer than we remembered as the basin seemed to imprison us.

As I reflect on this attempt, I am filled with gratitude. This truly was the perfect crew with the perfect window for the best conditions to make this happen. We all stuck to the turn around time and the group supported me when I really needed it. It takes a whole lot of everything to show up like that when it matters. Still, the summit lingered in our minds. With a few more refreshes hitting the mountains, conversations turned to day tripping the peak with a light and fast mentality. Dave took advantage of a full moon and cold temps on fresh snow to do just that the first weekend of May. He booted up Sloman and had an amazing ski descent off the summit. A truly epic return and success. I had Avs playoff tickets with my mom so I could not join but felt immensely proud of such an effort. Between playoff hockey and spring skiing, I don't get much rest this time of year.

Inspired by Dave, Ryan and I monitored temps and saw that the next Friday night would offer a freeze before a strong warming trend that would last for weeks. With a green avy forecast, Ryan and I packed as light as we felt comfortable and set off for redemption. We again arrived at the trailhead to car sleep before setting out at 12:45am. I don't think I slept at all as allergies were truly ruining my life with sneezing, runny/stuffy nose, and sinus pressure.

It was substantially warmer as we set off on much drier trail. We made great time to point where we'd navigate down to the river crossing. We transitioned to ski boots and skins, skinned down, and then crossed the river. The sun was just now rising as we evaluated options. It was so much drier in this section that we actually booted up on dry ground to treeline. We were to the lookers left of the descent gully we'd taken down on the earlier attempt. From there we put our skis back on our feet with ski crampons to get up to Mark's Gate. We ended up having to transition to crampons as our line was a bit too canted for ski crampons (my binding actually released and it was weird). The snow was perfect from cramponing and I felt encouraged as the basin came into view again. We could see ski tracks down most of the peak on Sloman and adjacent to that line. We could also see avy debris lower down in the line above the apron.

We decided to follow the same route we'd attempted earlier as this would be the most efficient (and we knew from Dave's photos that it was more filled in than last time). We kept at it as the sun light up peaks across the basin. Suddenly, the snow changed and it was trashy breakable crust. Ugh---the freeze last night did not go through as deep into the snowpack as we'd hoped. It seemed like the snow was becoming more wind affected as we got higher in the basin as well. We took a moment to discuss what this meant for plans and we decided it was not the day to ski any steep terrain as this could mean truly variable conditions. Sloman is an amazing line but with my ski abilities, I felt that it was too high of consequence for me if the conditions weren't predictably good. Whatever allergy thing I had going on was still plaguing me as well. We continued on and took turns breaking through crusty steps to the base of the short ascent couloir. I even tried going on some wet loose avy debris likely shed from thur/fri but this didn't make things any easier.

The snow was better than last time in the couloir for booting and we were able to make a strong ladder boot back up the couloir. We topped out and eyed the rest of the ridge to the summit. It looked mellow with some rocky spots on one side and cornice over cliffs on the other. It took us an hour to boot from the top out to the summit and the snow up high was getting warm as the forecasted winds stayed at bay (hooray!). The final push to the summit narrowed and I honestly felt unsettled as I reached the summit cairn (it was 11am--hard to believe last time it was 4pm and we were still in couloir). In my mind before actually getting here, I would put on skis here and ski down the mellow ridge but the ridge was a bit weirder than I thought. I could just imagine clipping a rock and sending myself over the cornice and off a cliff--the internal voices for whatever reason just seemed very loud telling me to play it safe that day. I radioed to Ryan that I was not going to be skiing off the summit and asked that he quickly snap some pics of me so I could get off the summit (I was feeling more weirded out by the minute). He got some photos of me and we traded places so that I could get photos of him looking majestic. Snowy Elk range views always impress me. The other thing that impressed me was how truly far away the next UN looked from Castleabra/Mt Raoul. I know folks have combined these peaks with snow on them and that is far above my pay grade.

Ryan and I took a good break on the ridge to look into Cumberland basin and refuel before the descent. We took our ladder steps down the ascent couloir to the transition spot. I debated taking the same line I had the first time but the snow appeared to still be hard and wind affected. I decided to ski straight over past the avy debris to where slopes had been more in the sun--maybe we'd get lucky and things would be better. Even so, everything was low angle so if the snow sucked, it wouldn't impede out descent. The breakable crust and avy debris skied terribly before I made a couple hesitant turns on the sunny slopes. The snow quality seemed to improve rapidly. I radioed to Ryan that it was time for le harvest. We skied glorious corn turns all the way down past Mark's Gate. We decided to find a different crossing point that would be less bushwhacky and followed ski tracks (thank you so much for these tracks) down to a more open river crossing. This was vastly easier and we could boot right up to the trail!

We decided to keep ski boots on until past the ponds we knew the snow in the trees was rotten and postholing would ensue. Thankfully it was only a couple miles before we were past the ponds and putting on trail runners for the very dry rest of the way out. We didn't end up filtering enough water and I was really hurting on the last few miles to the car. All the dumb sinus drainage was wreaking havoc on my throat so the lunatic magician was really just my own body. Close to the cars, we saw a truly massive bear across the basin confirming the sign in Aspen that the bears were awake. I wish I was feeling better so I could have really enjoyed this redemption summit but you don't always get to have everything go perfectly. I could not have done this without the incredible support of the partners on both treks. I am glad to have summited this peak in the snow even if the effort was greater to do so. I hope that the info in this trip report is a helpful option that I think is more efficient than booting up Sloman's and a great plan B if conditions warrant it. Unfortunately, I may still find myself willow bashing in Cumberland basin going for that UN someday but I truly hope to be back to ski some of the other surrounding peaks.

Our final stats were 20.1 miles and 5158 ft of vert on Gaia for the successful summit. (I tracked 20.5 miles and 4957ft for the failed attempt with the side quest to the hot springs.)