My first ever trip report, 31y/o male, Northeast ridge route

Got to Castle Creek Road around 6:45 AM on Thursday, 8/6, and was pleasantly surprised by how far my 2020 Subaru Forester Sport was able to make it. There were a few pretty dodgy rocks in the middle of the road that scraped the bottom of my car, but I've driven roads like this before and was able to pick the right lines. The car shook quite a bit in a few spots, but X-Mode kept me feeling pretty chill on the pedal. Had no real trouble getting to just before the Pearl Pass split at ~11,150 ft. Parked on the switchback and snagged the final of the four spots.

Started hiking around 7:30 AM.

The first few miles up the road were easy and pretty uneventful. I was actually more impressed by the vehicles making it up the road than anything else. There were cars surprisingly high up the route, and I even saw a guy driving a Toyota Hilux Surf around ~12,500 ft. That thing was badass.

Once I left the road and started climbing the headwall, things got much more interesting. The route wasn't particularly obvious and basically felt like a choose-your-own-adventure situation. The rock was extremely loose, and I was sliding backward with almost every step. Definitely the sketchiest part of the ascent.

Once I made it to the ridge, the hike became much easier. The advice to stay on the high spine of the ridge was spot on. A few sections gave me sweaty palms, but I actually had a lot of fun navigating it. The final steep ascent to the summit was on much more stable rock.

The summit was incredible. Bluebird sky, no wind, quiet, and huge views. Couldn't have asked for better conditions.

I didn't feel like making the extra trip over to Conundrum, but saw about four people coming back toward Castle and sending it straight down the bowl. From where I was standing, it didn't look particularly safe, although I'm sure the angle made it look worse than it actually was. They were knocking a ton of loose rock down into the bowl as they descended.

The descent is where things got a little scary. Two women were hiking up below me that I hadn't seen or heard. A rock underneath my foot suddenly broke loose and started barreling directly toward them. Luckily, by some force of God, it bounced and rolled away from them and continued down the southeast face.

We all just stood there staring down the mountain and listening for the rock to finally crash, taking more loose rubble with it. It felt like we were standing there for minutes. I was absolutely terrified. I've never had a large loose rock break free like that and potentially put another hiker in danger. The women were understandably pretty shaken up too. I stayed put until they passed me, then continued down.

From that point on, I was second-guessing every step, wondering if the next rock I stepped on was going to come loose. The headwall was especially treacherous. The route down looked much more obvious than it had on the way up, but the rock was still incredibly loose and I lost my footing several times.

Ended up with 6.8 miles round trip in just under four hours of moving time.

Overall, I'm glad I did Castle and got exactly what I was looking for: a relatively short, hard fourteener with incredible views and a lot of interesting terrain. Not sure I'd rush to do it again, but definitely glad I checked it off.