Conundrum Peak

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 7/11/2026, By: Pete724
Info: The couloir is now partially separated from the snowfield below, so a little rock scramble after the head wall is required. I started at the base around 7 and the snow was firm and consolidated all the way to the top. The snow at the narrowest point of the couloir has melted with some exposed rock which makes a few mixed climbing moves required. The climbers side right of the top was the less steep option. IMO this route will be going for another week or so depending on weather. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/1/2026, By: sethjameslittle
Info: Conundrum couloir was in good condition with consolidated snow. There were several glissade opportunities on the way down between Castle and Conundrum. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/8/2026, By: emilyuu
Info: Hiked via the standard route and the route is in great shape. We only had microspikes and it was all we needed (i.e. no showshoes or ice axe). The road is completely dry for hiking, then the headwall is completely snow covered but has a nice bootpack set and was still frozen ~7am. Once in the basin, the rest of the route along the ridge and saddle are dry. We descended Conundrum ~10am and the snow was extremely slushy at that point so we opted to glissade down the saddle; a few rocks hidden but easily avoidable. 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 6/1/2026, By: Kbrown321
Info: Booted Castle N couloir, traversed to Conundrum, and skied Conundrum couloir. Started Castle N at 7:15 and topped out by 8, great firm conditions. Friends took the ridge up which was snow free, if taking this route you’d only need spikes for the 1st headwall after the road.

Dropped conundrum at 9:45, top and bottom were both great corn but the middle choke was still hardpack and hadn’t had sun yet. Also some rocks starting to show in the choke so may not be in for a ton longer. We were then able to ski all the way down to about 12,000 by chaining snowfields down the middle gully skiers right of the road. Would recommend not lighting it up too much on the headwall back down to the road end as the nice corn turns into an icy runout that I unfortunately got too intimate with.

For road conditions, we got a taco up to 11,400. Creek crossing was maybe 2.5-3 feet deep at the deepest point.

Great day all around! 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 5/3/2026, By: evan79368
Info: Great day on Conundrum. Road is blocked by snow just after the creek crossing. Snow coverage on the road was thin but fairly consistent from there. There were 5-6 short sections where we removed our skis to walk over some rocks. Summited around 9AM, Couloir wasn’t ready to ski until about 10:30 AM. Corn was fabulous the whole way down. We blindly followed the existing skin track up, which follows the 4x4 road. This leads to a long challenging side hill on very hard snow. Would recommend skinning directly through the bottom of the basin as an easier alternative. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 4/12/2026, By: ericahlstedt
Info: See the castle update for photos of conundrum today 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 4/1/2026, By: Whitemtnskier
Info: Conundrum Couloir is in (for now). Had an awesome solo ski day, footage is posted here if anyone wants to watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfZTlGnGMdU 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 10/12/2025, By: Will_E
Info: Cold, rainy and snowy, did the standard up Castle then over to Conundrum. More snow than I expected after Cap on Thursday. I didn't use any gear, but had a few slips here and there. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 9/30/2025, By: headsizeburrito
Info: Standard combo route, see my Castle condition report for that section.

A short stretch of snow from the Castle summit down the ridge, then almost entirely dry, pretty smooth going for now. A few patches of snow to dodge between Conundrum and Conundrum North, but nothing serious. On the way back I considered taking the shortcut down from the saddle and saw tracks in the snow by the lake suggesting others had done it, but the upper section was dry and I decided to trust the route description that it sucks until it's snow filled and you have appropriate gear, and returned via Castle and the same way I came up. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 8/23/2025, By: paigemoney
Info: I’d call this route easy class 3. There was significant spontaneous rockfall off Conundrum today, including at least 20–30 seconds of consistent rockfall coming from what we believe was the couloir, along with multiple other smaller episodes throughout the morning. The re-ascent of Castle was straightforward and went relatively quickly. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 8/9/2025, By: seannunn
Info: Snow is all gone or avoidable with judicious travel on the Castle/Conundrum combo. Leave the ax & spikes at home. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/8/2025, By: wwdonaldson
Info: Good conditions. Microspikes definitely required. There’s still a good amount of snow at about 1 mile from the top. Please take the right gulley down, if you’re going to glissade. Almost had to call search and rescue up there because two boys went down the wrong one and almost got stuck. Be careful if you’re going to glissade. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/22/2025, By: timkoh
Info: Amazing conditions! Camped about 2 miles in. The next day, started hiking around 5:30, summited Castle around 8:30 and Conundrum at 9:30. Hit the saddle just before 10 and glissaded all the way down, the snow was nice and soft. My buddy didn't use an ice axe and was fine, but I like the extra safety so used it until the slope lessened and let off the brakes. Glissaded down the other 2 snow fields and had a blast of a day! Enjoy it while it's still in! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/21/2025, By: Caedmonn
Info: Drove to about 11,400' slept in my truck and started hiking about 3:45, summited castle at 6:30 then conundrum at 7:30, plenty of snow still on the headwall but there was really any concern as it was so stable being so early. Just used microspikes. Went down the snow at the saddle and lost control and slid most of the way, was totally fine as the runout is so long. Wouldn't necessarily recommend doing that tho, it was pretty icy so not easy glissading, in the process of losing control my ice axe got stuck in the snow, if anyone sees it and would be willing to get it back to me that'd be awesome! Insta is @caedmonnewland id be happy to come pick it up wherever. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/20/2025, By: Suley888
Info: We got our stock jeep rubicon up to 12,200 feet. Snow, ice, and multiple large boulders made further travel impossible. Still pretty good!!

Started at 515 am and got to the headwall a around 6. Snow was nice and solid going up and didn't pose a problem at all, we used spikes and poles, no crampons or ice axe.

The wind was the true demon today. It made the journey pretty stressful as gusts were extremely powerful and there are multiple places where exposure is bad.

We hiked up castle first, then conundrum. We did take the "short cut" back down at the dip in the saddle, but BE WARNED. Even as early as 8 am the snow there was slushy and did not hold. We ended up glissading, which i completely admit was inadvisable as I mentioned before we didnt bring ice axes or helmets for that matter. We both made it down without incident which I account more to luck.

The headwall snow was holding up better, and the glissading opportunities weren't nearly as dire.

If you plan to do castle and conundrum and not resubmit castle, bring gear and go SOON. With the recent heat wave it's not getting a good refreeze overnight even.