Castle Peak

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/13/2024, By: edwardmgmt
Info: Great conditions. At the end of the road you hike a couple of sections in the snow - microspikes were helpful. After summiting Conundrum, we glissaded. The top part of the glissade 50~100ft vert was dry, and a little sketchy. The glissade was steep at the top, but a lot of fun. The snow is soft. Like most, we exited right of lake (instead of the usual left). We glissaded the bottom two sections too. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/5/2024, By: conorod
Info: Fantastic climb today under the bluest sky I've ever seen! Parked by the footbridge (not wanting to risk the rental any further!) and hit the trail at 6 AM. Uneventful hike to the headwall and snowfields, arriving around 8:30. My boots are borderline racing slicks at this point so spikes would have been helpful but were in no way necessary. The ridge trail was easy to follow but I zagged right at the first "castle" below the summit instead of zigging left and ended up where I didn't want to be. One slightly hair-raising climb back to the trail later and I summitted at 10:30. What a view! I didn't have time for the Conundrum twofer so headed down (this time following the trail with no issues). Glissaded down the snowfields - so much more fun than trudging up - and began the 4-mile hike back to the car, arriving around 2 PM. Didn't see a cloud all day and, as always, met some cool people on the way. Shout out to the staff at Ute Mountaineers in Aspen for their beta and advice the day before my climb. This is a fun, challenging 14er. The exposure along the ridge isn't too bad but is good for an adrenaline shot or two. Views from the ridge and especially the summit are some of the best. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/29/2024, By: MaryinColorado
Info: If you have a good clearance 4WD, you can drive up to ~12K. Big snowdrift blocks the road at that point. I parked at 10,200 because I didn't particularly like the creek crossing, but upon further consideration it seems a-okay for a good clearance vehicle. Still plenty of snow on the headwall and definitely in the high basin. After the headwall, though, the route is dry up to Castle and beyond to Conundrum. The glissade is in. Snow is still to the saddle. Never been so thankful to have my ice axe! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: MarcyMullet
Info: Weather was perfect. Snow on the glissade between the two mountains was just right, but it's steeper than I expected. I still attempted it and with and ice axe, practice and no spikes on my feet, I ended up upside down sliding down the mountain. There was a big crowd watching that all did it more gracefully then I did. If anyone took a video of my wild ride, I'd love to see it. I wasn't afraid, even upside down, because it goes down into a big bowl and I knew I would stop eventually. No injuries. Thank you to the lovely gentleman to made it back up to retrieve my hat and sunglasses for me. I needed those for the long hike back to the trailhead. I lost my ice axe near the top. If anyone comes acoss it... ... a little sheepish, but mostly laughing. Have fun out there and be safe! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/4/2024, By: Gator Wrasler
Info: Great hike, drove stock dodge ram and land rover LR4 to almost 12,000 ft (popped two all terrain tires on 20 inch rims - make sure you have a spare and good jack). River is fun and crossable. Saw several 4 runners and jeeps with bigger tires. Camped at bend in road above 11,000. Definitely a lot of snow, but some including teens in our group did okay without micro spikes/ice axe. I personally used snow gators and micro spikes and was glad I had them. Not necessary though. Summited both peaks without problem. Slid down the coular /shoot just as you come off conundrum. Several of us did it, 1 out of 2 or 3 got hurt, broke or lost something. Mostly jamming/cutting fingers or bruises from hitting rocks. Its fast. Be careful. Kind of stupid to do, but would do it again. Shaves off an hour+ compared to going back up Castle. Total drop from start to lake at bottom (was the only one that made it that far with slick wind pants) is 400 feet, maybe 1200-1500 feet of sliding to lake. More glissading lower is safer and worth doing. Lots of rain while camping two nights. Great hike. Had kids 12-18 years old who did great. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/25/2024, By: Piotr
Info: Montezuma Basin Rd can be driven up to switchbacks/parking at 11,600, blocked by snow shortly after. Basin still has plenty of snow. The snow is still up to the saddle for glissade, although it was very soft by 9am with no overnight freeze. Had to downclimb first 30-40' of cornice since I was sinking knee deep. Snow got more solid after that. Bear and moose along the road. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/18/2024, By: esabers
Info: Did Castle/Conundrum combo on 6/17. Made it through creek crossing and to 10,700 in stock 4Runner TRD Pro. Parked there due to 2 snow piles that I didnt want to risk going through (and when we finished our hike there was a lifted 4Runner stuck in one of those snow piles). Overall, trail is clear until just below the headwall where there are some snowfields and then the headwall is still full snow. From the top of the headwall route was clear of snow and dry with the exception of one snowfield close to the summit of Castle. Glissaded down from Castle-Conundrum saddle and again down the headwall. Started from car at 5am, back to car at about noon. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: masonzastrow
Info: Did both peaks from the Castle standard route, then glissaded down from the saddle. Snow is set up well in the basin, aside from around the lake where we were postholing badly. That said, I do not regret leaving the snowshoes in the car. Spikes and an axe were good enough all day. Subaru impreza had to park at the very lowest lot, we were sad we couldn't make it to a campsite. Most of Castle's ridge is dry, aside from a short pitch for maybe 30 feet just below the summit. Conundrum had a tiny bit more but was never more than ankle deep. The road is very wet, I dunked a boot twice. We planned on Castle's north couloir, but it peters out about 3/4ths of the way up. Two folks did it this morning, but their path looked too spooky from the ground to follow. We found a water bottle on the glissade from the saddle, tell me the brand and color and I'll get it back to you! Started at 3, summited Conundrum at 9:15, back to car about 1. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/15/2024, By: Dan_Suitor
Info: I did Castle after summiting Conundrum via the couloir. I returned via Castles Northwest Ridge. I originally planned to do Castle Couloir, but the snow ran out 2/3 the way up. Later I saw somebody climbing the couloir, but it did not look fun when he ran out of snow to climb. There is still plenty of snow, both on the road and on the Headwall, but I never needed floatation. The upper class 1 and 2 sections are dry, but there is a small patch of snow near the summit. 

Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 6/6/2024, By: rachel
Info: With an overnight forecasted low of 30 and clear skies (NOAA), we started at 3:15 AM at the Castle Creek crossing at 10,200'. The creek is flowing high, but we used the log bridge to cross. We walked the road on a combination of dirt and somewhat supportive snow until 11,300 where we transitioned to skinning after it was finally continuous snow to the summit. Initially in trip planning, we discussed climbing/ skiing Conundrum Couloir first and adding Castle Peak second. As we climbed the east-facing headwall at 7 AM, we started punching through the surface in one area, finding wet grains underneath. Additionally we saw the huge amount of avy debris in Conundrum Couloir, we decided against that idea and headed to climb Castle's North face to the summit. The north-facing snow remained frozen but once we reached the top of the couloir, the final 100' had knee to hip deep post-holing up the east-facing snow. We summited at 8:45, quickly transitioned, and carefully skied down the occasionally post-holing, with skis, non-supportive east ridge. The north couloir was still frozen and required jump turns. We could have waited longer, but wanted to time the lower mountain, which was perfect corn. The ski down was uneventful with a segment of road walking. 

Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 5/27/2024, By: jway2952
Info: Summitted Conundrum via Conundrum Couloir first, then went over to Castle NW Face. Road was drivable (4x4 lifted 4Runner) to the creek crossing, then continuous snow from there. Started around 6. Summitted Conundrum around 11 and then skies down to the base of Castle. Started up Castle around 12, dropped in around 1/130 after a break on the summit. Back to the car around 3. Winds were way lower than forecasted, but good cloud coverage kept the snow firm later into the day and the powder (4-6"?) fresh (especially the north face despite some exposed rock up top). Lower elevations were quite sloppy by the time we were heading out, and glad we didn't go for the East Face based on our timing. Had tiny wet slabs sheathing off as we egressed the valley. Tons of snow still so get it while it's good! 

Route: East Face & Couloir
Posted On: 5/16/2024, By: DeclanKnies
Info: Stellar Conditions for Skiing! Road is partially melted out 60/40 dirt/snow as of 5/15 to the stream crossing. Likely will be drivable soon. Stayed at the Green-Wilson Hut for 3 days and skied Castle's E face and Conundrum's SE face into the couloir. From the Stream crossing around 10,2, full, deep snow coverage all the way to the ridge. We skinned up to the ridge following the trail, then booted the rest to the summit. Coverage is actually gorgeous on the face. The couloir is fat and the face still has several ways into the couloir. Will be in for a minute! Get it while it's good! Conundrum is also fat and the SE face skied like a dream. The couloir is super filled too and it should be a good spring/summer ski season in Montezuma basin! 

Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 5/5/2024, By: kcovingt
Info: Beautiful and long day in the mountains. Did not summit. We got to the ridge and saw the north couloir was very thin and not worth the extra effort to get there. Skied from the upper basin, snow was very soft by the time we were descending at 11:30. Continuous snow from the creek crossing, can drive to the lower trailhead if you go around the road closed sign. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 1/3/2024, By: Chipmunk
Info: There are snowmobile tracks all the way to where the trail splits from Pearl Pass, and from there is a nice skin track. The skin track basically follows the road (with a few shortcuts) and involves a lot of annoying sidehilling to the base of the headwall. From here it appears everyone turned and skied back out except for one lone soul, who put a nice bootpack up the rocks in the middle of the headwall (thank you, whoever you are!) We ditched our splitboards at the top of the headwall and followed the standard northeast ridge route up Castle. The ridge had a coating of unconsolidated snow over all the rocks, but we made do without traction. We trekked over to Conundrum and re-ascended Castle. We skied down the headwall, which showed no signs of instability, and down the road until it became too flat to ride. Snow conditions were mixed, but it was much more fun than walking. There is not enough snow for the usual suspect slopes above the road to prove dangerous, and the green avalanche danger reflects this. In fact, we saw evidence of only one small recent slide on an east facing slope lower in the basin. Conundrum couloir looks fantastic for this time of year. Castle's north couloir, on the other hand, is completely devoid of snow. Flotation is crucial. Carried but did not use axe, crampons, and avalanche rescue gear. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 12/23/2023, By: paulbarish
Info: Not sure if it will matter after this storm but there is a nice efficient skin track and broken trail up Castle and Conundrum. I was shocked to see anyone out there but while I slept in Wilderness Jane, Wilderness Dave and Andy (I forgot his handle) were breaking trail. I met them on their way back from Conundrum. I hate them for stealing my trail breaking privileges but theyll be plenty of trail to break later haha good work you all and congrats on your summits!