Route: North Face Couloir

Team: Ted, Adrian Ballinger

The fall of 2006 was another snowy one up in Montezuma Basin. I made several trips up into the basin for some fall skiing, and after enough snow fell, the North Couloir on Castle Peak was ready to go. This time, I went with Adrian Ballinger, the lead guide and owner of Alpenglow Expeditions.

Our ATV made quick work of the road. It even allowed time to help dislodge a stuck Subaru Outback along the way, belonging to a couple from Boulder who read online reports of good skiing up here. Unfortunately, the process of freeing the low-slung car completely tore off its front end. We felt kind of bad to leave them there by the lower switchbacks, no doubt to argue the entire way home over whose stupid idea it was to travel all that way in the first place, but there wasn’t much more we could do. Don’t head up there in a low-clearance car.

We skinned and booted up to the Castle/Conundrum saddle and then to Castle Peak’s summit. Adrian, who is six feet plus, has long strides and great overall fitness, so I worked hard to keep up on this first ski mountaineering day of the season.

We skied the North Couloir, hardly hitting a rock, though hindered by flat light from time to time. Then the clouds broke, so we went for Conundrum Peak, too.

When we reached the top, the sun was shining, and the ski was awesome. For all the times I’ve been up near here, I had never skied the Conundrum Couloir, so I was psyched. So much so that I thought the day warranted a follow-up visit with Christy later in the week.