Castle Peak

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/26/2025, By: aldsw
Info: No snow left on the headwall, or anywhere on the upper mountain so micro spikes stayed in our packs all day. There is snow lower on the mountain. It was easy to cross in trail runners in the morning. We glissaded a couple sections on the lower mountain (not off the headwall, we resummited Castle and are glad we did). I was glad to have an ice axe but it wasn't required. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/28/2025, By: robbcaz
Info: Had a great hike. Impressed with how far up some of the drivers were able to make it. I stuck with the standard 4/4 stoppage at the Pearl pass turn. At least two mandatory snowfields/couldn't avoid going up. I'm glad I had micro-spikes, but the two hikers ahead of me didn't have any and did just fine. If doing the combo, I would strongly recommend going back over castle again on the descent. I did the descent from the saddle down and it was challenging. Ended up sliding out on a pretty steep pitch of snow leading down to the lake. The skree and shifting rock were also difficult in the valley. I think I added at least 30 minutes to the hike down instead of going back over castle. I had fun but would not recommend. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/12/2025, By: pthomps17
Info: Great day out! My wife and I wore microspikes on the headwall and stayed in the snow all the way until the end. That was much, MUCH easier than climbing through the rocks (which I’ve done before). Get an early start and wear spikes and it’s honestly not bad. All terrain after the end of the road is slow and tedious so make sure you’ve got good weather. We re-summited Castle after Conundrum and avoided the descent off the saddle. The regain really isn’t that bad (~450 feet) and beats risking a serious injury to save only a little time. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/7/2025, By: CarissaB2
Info: Hiked Castle and Conundrum on 4th of July and conditions were great. Started the hike from Pearl Pass around 7:30 AM, snow on the headwall around 8:30 AM was not bad at all - we used microspikes which helped, but you could probably do it without. Past the headwall, no snow the rest of the route up to the summit of Castle or across the ridgeline to Conunudrum. It was cloudy and a little snowy in the morning, but things cleared up for the most part around 11 AM. On the descent, sun made the snow much wetter and softer. Again, spikes helped but could do without. Thankfully no real post-holing or sinking as we went down the headwall. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/1/2025, By: kmoss2
Info: Sharing as yet another cautionary tale for NOT glissading down if you don't have an ice axe and/or it's warming up and the glissade from between C&C is not a good idea. Did both Castle + Conundrum yesterday and didn't want to reascend Castle but didn't have an ice axe - just microspikes + poles. Figured I'd "downclimb" instead of glissade after seeing some notes about downclimbing instead; however - the reality is I've never intentionally "downclimbed" in my life and I got myself into pretty -- no, VERY -- sketchy territory where the slope I was descending was extremely steep, rocks were extremely loose, and I spent about 45 minutes holding on for dear life as I tried to work my way over and down into a spot where I could reach the snow and kick step my way around the little lake/pool of water at the bottom. Plot twist, after sending a microwave sized rock accidentally down, I wriggled my way into a spot where I could put my microspikes on slowly, then inched towards where the rock met the snow.. needless to say it was a massive leap of glissade where fortunately I was able to whizz down quite a bit and stop myself with heels & poles, then carefully walk my way across the rest of the snow (maybe 60 yards or so). Worst raspberry of my life (and I was a college soccer player) as I think I must have skidded over some rock that otherwise looked like all snow. This was a REALLY stupid decision that could have had a very different alternative. If I were not the athlete that I am, this could have been ugly. Shoutout to the couple from Arkansas who I was able to connect with near the summit and again after making it down. Only saw 5 folks total. I hate to post this, I am otherwise strong and thoughtful in the mountains (this was 14ers 23 and 24 for me, did Holy Cross today and it was a cake walk after yesterday), but I feel obligated to share.. I took a STUPID gamble and learned my lesson. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/27/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Made it to campsite 6 (~1.2 miles above the 2WD trailhead) in my AWD Honda CRV (6.8'' clearance) before some big ruts in the road that were impassable in my vehicle. We backpacked up to about ~11,200 and camped for the night. Started the next morning at 2:45AM and made it to the summit of Castle by 5:10AM. Snow remained on the majority of the headwall at ~12,800 and ended at about ~13,400'. Summer conditions on the slope and ridge leading the Castle as well as the ridge leading to Conundrum. Spikes were helpful for climbing the headwall. 7.54 miles / 3,563' gain / 4 hours, 27 minutes 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/24/2025, By: crowdsurf
Info: Great conditions on Castle and Conundrum this Sunday. The major difficulty that slowed our group down was the headwall. There is a social footpath through the snow for about a quarter mile that doesn't seem to follow the main trail. The snow travel can be minimized by zigzagging a bit through the rock outcroppings. This is the only area with snow coverage that requires consideration. It probably will only be an issue for another couple of weeks. We opted not to bring ice axes to save weight, which was still a good decision, but made it so that we could only glissade at very short intervals of low angle. The snow descent between the saddle looks very sketchy and steep. We re-ascended Castle after doing Conundrum, which was a great lung burner. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: HokieTom
Info: I started from the lower trailhead at 5 AM, should have started at 2AM. No issues with the road and snow. The problem for me was starting at the head wall. The snow was supportive when I got there, had issues near the rock formations. When I got to the top of the head wall, I had to make a decision. I had 1000’ of elevation to go to summit. My guess was 2 hours up, 1 hour down, how will the snow be with 3 more hours of bright sunlight? I decided that I did not have enough time to safely finish the route. Get there very early for a safe return or be a fast hiker, unlike me. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: wmagnuson7
Info: Spectacular day on Castle and Conundrum. I went up the first headwall around 7:45 a.m. and didn't posthole at all, which was great because I was worried about my slightly late arrival. After summiting both peaks, I glissaded down the steep head wall from the saddle between Castle and Conundrum around 9:30 a.m. I am glad I didn't start earlier because the snow was softened by that point and made for a slower/safer glissade. However, if you want to glissade this year, GET THERE SOON! As you can see from the picture, it is getting rocky in places and the snow is thinning. Leave the snowshoes and gaiters at home, but would definitely bring poles and microspikes. Enjoy and God bless! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: chadahooche_
Info: Fantastic conditions. Highly recommend bringing a mountain bike to go up and back down the Pearl Pass after the designated campsites. No snowshoes (and didn't need them) but did bring spikes and an axe to get down the snow gully/saddle between each peak. This is steep so we chose to downclimb rather than glissade. Group behind us glissaded and were quite out of control on the way down. Easy, chill glissades back down to the road after that. 2 min visual trip report here: https://youtu.be/pqpP1Nj_vBc 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: gbledsoe
Info: Great climbing on the NE ridge via the summer route. We parked at 10,700', where the snow became too deep to drive any further. The big fallen tree across the road is at 10,900'. The upper shelf road still has snow, but can mostly be avoided when walking the road. In the lower basin, we postholed in a few places, but found a good snow route all the way to the upper basin. The traverse to the ridge and the ridge both had the perfect snow for climbing, all the way to the summit. We included some pictures of the skiers climbing the Conundrum Couloir and saddle (pretty amazing!). 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: andibertolina
Info: Ascended Conundrum couloir, topped out Conundrum Peak then skied back down the couloir. We were ascending the couloir around 800am with boot-top deep booting conditions and skiing down was pretty mushy but still fun. We then traversed over to near the saddle between Castle and Conundrum to ascend back to the ridge to head for Castle. We were able to skin almost back to the ridge (just had to boot the last 50 or so feet). The ridge from Conundrum to Castle is mostly snow free, just a few drifts here and there but we didn't need crampons to ascend. We topped out Castle then headed fort he N couloir to descend. Despite other trip reports, we were able to ski down the N couloir pretty easily. Sure there are some rocks, and these will melt out more as we are in June now but from a skier's perspective, I would rather deal with minimal rocks on skis than walk down the summer trail. We started from campsite 7 right before the creek crossing but some 4 runners made it up about 1 mile and 500' further up the road until they were stopped by snow drifts on the road. Even if the snow melts there is a big fallen tree about 2 miles in that is blocking the road for now. 

Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: S-Parx
Info: I would not consider the N. Couloir in at this point. Thin/rocky/narrow in the upper 1/3rd. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/3/2025, By: JerJerBinks
Info: Mostly posting to reinforce that Castle's NF couloir is not in and drop some pics. It's much thinner than the pics might make it seem. We camped at spot 8 or 9 just before the crossing. Summer conditions here and all but that camp spot was occupied when we showed on Sat at 4pm. Our plan was to climb the NF couloir on Castle early the next morning. I couldn't believe how warm it was that night. Snow started on the 4wd Rd maybe 1 mile past the bridge but was mostly avoidable until shortly before the head wall. Headwall had a complete blanket and despite t-shirt weather was fully supportive early am. Arriving at the upper basin it was disappointing to see how bare the NF couloir was. One glance and it wasn't for me. Also important to note nf couloir was taking rando rockfall. Conundrum Couloir however was definitely in, but hadn't even been considered so we headed for the standard combo. Final push on Castle had some decent wet snow, but we managed without any traction. Conundrum looked a little precarious but went for us with micro spikes and an axe. The descent gully was super soft and when I investigated it I was waist deep immediately. We decided to go back over Castle in fear of swimming our way back to our snow shoes at the headwall. Fairly supportive for temps back to the th. Only wound up in full body post holes a few times and never used our snow shoes. 

Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 5/20/2025, By: Youngan
Info: New snow made for variable conditions climbing and skiing.Lots of sharks up high. Started at campsite 7. On and off snow on the road for the 2 miles