Aspen, Colorado.  Castle Peak, East Face, B-day Trip report

Hey friends and family,

Here are some photos and a trip report of our epic day on April 27th.  I was lucky to be joined by close friends Mark Welgos, Greg Shaffran, Darcy Conover, and Brett Conover.  The goal was to ski the East face of Castle Peak.  We didn't even hit a bump in the road.   

It's been a really warm March/April this year...but for some strange reason it snowed hard every Friday night during the past month.  So every weekend lately has had epic skiing conditions.  This weather had been getting people excited about the backcountry opportunities after the resorts closed mid-April.  Initially people were aniticipating roads and access to be melted-out very quickly in April due to the warmth and very low snowpack, but these spring storms kept things snow-covered.  So we started to try to ski a few lines around here that are hard to access without a snowmobile.  Now that I have one, these lines are day-trips.  We skied a crazy line on Pyramid Peak (14,018ft.), and another on the Maroon Bells while attempting to ski from the summit of South Maroon (14,156 ft.).  (I'll write more on those later).  I was really excited about skiing some cool stuff around here this spring. 

Then, 3 weeks ago we had a huge dust event come into the Aspen area just in front of a huge snowstorm.  So just like the 2009 season, we were going to have to deal with an unstable dirt layer this spring.  After the dust storm we had a lot of warm days, so the dirt settled into the base snowpack.  Things were melting quickly, and the dirt is no fun to ski.  It grinds into the bases of your skis, deteriorates your skins, and is very sticky to ski.  So basically the dirt sucks.  Because of this, we started to plan ski trips to other areas in Colorado and Utah.  But then it snowed here again on April 24th.  I realized that this storm would give me an opportunity to get something skied around here.  I would already be in town for my bday, because Dad was around, and because I had to work.  I knew the Taggert hut was available and the weather looked good.  So everything was working out.  So I decided that the East face of Castle Peak was going to happen.  It would be my 3rd attempt to ski it...so I was pretty ambitious to get it done. 

We went up to the hut on Monday afternoon.... a little late so the snow was rotten from all the heat and sun.  That caused a little trouble with the sleds since we had 2 people per sled and a huge bag of gear, beer, food, and sleeping bags for the night at the hut.  Brett and Tracie on his sled, and Darcy and I on my sled.  Mark Welgos and Greg Shaffran, two of my main climbing buddies, were skinning up behind us. 

After digging our sleds out of a 3 foot layer of sugar snow about 2 miles from the hut, Brett and I rode our sleds solo to drop off our gear.  We turned around afterward to go pick up Mark and Greg and were finally at the hut around 6:30pm.  At the hut we hung out and got our packs ready for Tuesday morning.  We cooked a huge dinner of burritos, mac'n cheese, and sausages, and hit the sac around 10:30, ready for a 2:30am wake-up. 

Out the door by 3:45am Tuesday, we were skinning up the basin below Castle's elusive East Face, looming above us in the cold, dark night.  By 5:15am we had reached the bottom of our ascent route up a couloir leading to the Northeast ridge.  We made great time to this point, ascending about 1,700 ft. in just one and a half hours.  We took a break at the bottom of the couloir to take skins off, put on crampons, and take some photos as the light was brightening.  We knew at this point that it would be a perfect day...not a cloud in the sky.  We did notice however that the wind was blowing really hard above us, as spin-drifts of snow were cascading down the couloir towards us.  We were all confident about the snowpack, so we started booting up the couloir.  Th (Check out the 1st photo, the dotted line is our climbing route, and the solid line is our ski descent down the east face.)

The sun had just risen and the light was insane!  (Check out the photos!)  The couloir was awesome...perfect snow for climbing.  The huge cliff walls on either side of us were so cool, and they blocked the wind.  We topped out on the couloir around 7am.  The wind was howling super hard.  Probably 30mph gusts at least.  We had to neal down a few times.  We took a break to have some water and put another layer on.

We now had about a 1 mile, 800 ft. ridge-walk to the summit (you can see the full ridge ascent and summit behind Brett in one of the photos).  I have done it in the summer, but of course it's a lot different now.  The ridge took about 2 hours to climb with lots of careful steps.  It was very gripping but super fun!

Finally we topped out on Castle Peak around 9:15am.  We were all pretty drained because almost everyone's water was frozen.  None of us anticipated how cold it was going to be with all the wind we had.  There were some doubts among the group about skiing the East face.  I had my heart set on it, and there was no way that on my 3rd attempt, standing on top of the line, that I wasn't going to ski it.  So I committed to the East face, Mark followed.  And then Greg joined us.  Brett and Darcy decided to ski the North side that had a long chute going back into another basin in between Castle Peak and Conundrum Peak (it's the basin below Conundrum Peak in the Conundrum Couloir photo; on a side note I've skied that couloir on 4th of July a few years ago!).  We would all meet back at the hut, but we had radio contact with each other in case of an emergency.  So we said goodbye and goodluck, and dropped in on our respective lines.  YEEHAW!!!!

Mark dropped in first on the SE Ridge above the East face to check the snow up high (if you look at the photo of our route, we skied the ridgeline off the peak until we were above our line on the East face, and confident about dropping in).  He made a ski cut, which should hopefully release the top layer of wind-blown snow that had deposited on the face up high from the recent Western winds.  We were hoping that it was only a small layer that would release....thinking that the snow from the recent storm had bonded to the layers below.  In theory, this would leave us with some soft, skiable snow on the 45+ degree slope we were about to commit to. 

Nothing released for Mark.  So I followed and leapfrogged past him, further down the ridge.  I made 2 hard ski cuts, and managed to release a bunch of snow on each cut!  This was great news!  The loose snow slid down our descent route, pulling with it any loose snow in its way.  This basically paved the way for us to ski.  We now felt safe to ski the East face after watching all of the loose snow on the face avalanche into the basin 1,600 ft. below us.  It was GO-TIME!!

The face was very challenging skiing with lots of exposure and variable snow conditions.  It was hard to take out the camera to take ski photos...but I managed to snap one of Mark.  It's a pretty good shot considering how tough the skiing was.  After 20 minutes of careful route finding and safe skiing, we made it into the basin below!  We took a quick rest...it seemed like the skiing was way more demanding on our bodies than the 5 and a half hour climb.  Looking at the East face from below (see photo), I was so pumped and couldn't believe I finally skied it on my 3rd attempt.  Happy f'ing Birthday!

A quick ten minute ski through the basin back to the Taggert hut, and we were all together again, and it was only noon.  We made some snacks and drank a bunch of beers in the sun before packing up and heading out.  What a day!  One couldn't ask for a more perfect, smooth mission in the backcountry.  The weather was perfect, the sleds worked out, we summitted, and skied and amazingly classic line in the Rockies.  An amazing birthday over-all.  I felt like the luckiest person that day. 

I hope you guys enjoy the report and the photos.  It was a day to remember for sure.  We made epic turns for all our families, friends, and those who have fallen.  Much love and may you all have many blessed days such as these! 

Adam