Route: North Face Couloir

Team: Christy, Ted

A few days after skiing both Castle and Conundrum with Adrian Ballinger, Christy and I went back up to take advantage of the early-season snow. It was a weekend day, though, which attracted more people. Nowadays, with all the near real-time trip reports you can find online, more people are aware of the opportunities for some early season turns. It was a bit of a junk show, complete with stuck cars, snowshoers with skis/boards and boots hanging from backpacks, and lots of dogs. So we joined the weekend warriors in the fun.

Bad karma that had been piling up as a result of my complaining about the scene throughout the morning manifested itself in the form of a broken ski pole. The lower carbon shaft had snapped as Christy whacked her ski to clear the skins of snow and our goal of skiing Castle’s summit was suddenly more complicated. Luckily, after a quick MacGyver move involving a bobby pin off her head, the extension tube of her Life-Link shovel, and some tape from the first aid kit, we had it fixed, and we were back on the skin track.

We skinned to the Castle/Conundrum saddle, and then towards the summit, eventually having to boot to the top— all the while in and out of the clouds. The ski down was sweet. With everyone else staying down on the lower slopes of Montezuma Basin, we had Castle Peak all to ourselves.

Conundrum would have to wait, the weather was deteriorating so we figured we’d be happy to go home with what we got.

Leki replaced the ski pole free of charge- thanks, Leki!