I showed the lady at Guest Services my Fusion Pass, and she yelled to another woman at a desk across the room. She said, "Look for 'Emilio Trampuz' -- There must be only one like that!" And, sure enough, within 10 seconds or less, the other woman responded that she found me on the list, and I was good to go!
Second surprise: Castle Mountain is BIG! And its size surprised me twice. First, as soon as I drove to the parking lot, I looked up and couldn't believe how steep and how long that first chairlift is. It might not have the same impact in a photo, but the top part of the slope under the lift looked insanely steep. It turned out to be a bit of an optical illusion, but still, it was steeper than I ever expected.
In fact, most of the slopes here are very steep. Their blue trails would be called black everywhere else. If those trails weren't groomed, they would deserve a double-black classification. A whole bunch of basically steep black trails are groomed to perfection and then labeled blue. Not to worry. There are easier ways down the mountain too. But the fact that almost all the trails are classified a whole category lower than they really are is something I have found only in one other place so far, and that is at Sun Valley.
Third surprise. I got to the top of that first steep lift. I thought the one lift covered the whole ski area. But then I spotted a second lift taking people even higher. This was the Tamarack lift. At first, it looked like that lift was a short one, just long enough to take people to the top of a small hill above the first lift. I hopped onto it. After the lift took me to the top of the hill I saw, it didn't stop there. A whole gigantic bowl exploded into view. The lift is a truly long one, taking you to the top of that bowl.
Castle Mountain does a fantastic job grooming such steep slopes. They must be using some kind of winch cat. But a comparison with Nakiska ski area is inevitable. At Nakiska, everything is groomed to perfection too. But while at Nakiska everyone who can skis at maximum speed, here at Castle Mountain, people ski more carefully, picking their way down both groomed trails and ungroomed powder.
Castle Mountain offers everything that Nakiska lacks. At Castle Mountain, you will find an endless supply of powder and tree skiing. Including some relatively easy miniature trees. I love using small trees as slalom gates. So I left my mark among some of them. But there is so much tree skiing here that you couldn't cover all the available lines even in several days of skiing here.
The scenery is fantastic. There are tall peaks everywhere around you. One particular mountain with a flat top reminds me of a fortress, so I asked some locals if that was the real Castle Mountain. They rattled off the names of all the surrounding mountains and not one of them was Castle Mt. The ski areas actually got its name from Castle River that flows nearby. And apparently there is a real Castle Mountain, but somewhere farther away.
The flat-top fortress-like mountain is called Mt. Tombstone. The smaller hill at the ski area is called Gravenstafel. The snowcat skiing is on Mt. Eloi -- well on one of the St. Elois -- there are apparently 3 of them. To the north is Syncline Mountain. To the south are Mt. Haig and the Rainy Ridge.
At the top of the highest lift, I got a little scared, mainly because of the steepness and the strong wind. The gusts of wind were picking up a lot of very fine powdery snow and whipping it high into the air. This wind-blown snow particles made it look like there was some fog in the air, so visibility wasn't good at times.
While still sitting on chairlift, the wind was buffeting my skis. I had my new fat skis on, and they felt like sails. I was concerned that I might lose a ski to the wind.
Some of the terrain near the top is also insanely steep, not quite like a cliff, but close enough. Some of it must have been 70 or 80 degrees. Combine that with low visibility (a kind of foggy whiteout), and almost everybody took a road traversing the slopes to the other end of the big bowl. I stopped near the edge of the road to take a picture. But then I was concerned that the wind gusts might blow me over the edge.
My first reaction was: "I am not getting on this upper lift again (the Tamarack lift)." But by the time I skied the whole way from the top of the highest chair to the base area, the sun came out, the wind died down, and suddenly everything felt a lot more friendly. So, I went to the top again. And I am glad I did. That's when I discovered a whole field of small trees and skied it.
Fourth surprise. After lunch, I decided to explore a somewhat smaller nearby hill. That hill was full of surprises too. On the trail map, it looked like it was all blue and green trails. But, the blues were more challenging than your average intermediate trail. And there were lots of hidden nooks and crannies. On the chairlift ride up, I spotted a particular trail that had some untouched powder left on it. I wanted to ski that. Usually, I am pretty good at orienteering, but somehow, I ended u on a different trail and missed that powder spot. The trials here split and re-combine, and it's a bit hard to figure out where you are. This smaller hill turned out to be more challenging than expected.
Fifth surprise. At the top of the smaller hill, there was a snowcat taking people snowcat skiing onto another bigger adjacent mountain.
Sixth surprise. At lunch, in the cafeteria, the y had a bunch of different sausages, all with creative names. One was called "The Americano" and had some jalapeno peppers in it. I opted for the "Das Ski Boot" (if I remember the name correctly), and that one came with sauerkraut and caramelized onions, and a bunch of other ingredients. It was the messiest sausage I have ever eaten. It lookedgreat and tasted good, but I ended up with sauerkraut and caramelized onions all over my fingers. It is impossible to eat that sausage without getting some juicy stuff all over your hands and fingers. I should have eaten it with a knife and fork.
Seventh surprise. Condos. After driving for hours through rural, cowboy country, with several tiny towns with just a few houses, I was surprised to see lots of condos at the base of Castle Mountain.
Overall, Castle Mountain offers a lot of terrain, more than one could explore in a single day. Their slogan for Castle Mountain is: "Closer to Heaven. Down to Earth."
The only negative thing about Castle Mountain is that it is remote. Very remote. But, hey, that's good, because it means no crowds.
Castle Mountain ski area is actually within maybe about 20 miles from Montana, as the crow flies. But there is no way to get to Montana from there. The road pretty much dead ends at the ski area. To get back to the US from there, you have to drive up north first, to Crowsnest, past Pass Powderkeg ski area, past Fernie, and after almost 2 hours of driving, you have completed a semi-circle at Elko, BC. From there, it takes another half an hour to get to the Roosville border crossing on the road to Whitefish, Montana.
Alternatively, you can stay on Canada's highway 3, which roughly parallels the US border, not in a straight line but rather zig-zaging up and down and then you can turn south into the US at a number of places including:
a) On highway 95, south of Cranbrook, toward Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Or ...
b) Highway 6 south of Nelson and Salmo, toward Spokane, WA, ... Or ...
c) Highway 97, south of Oliver and Osoyoos, toward Wenatchee, WA.
I will be taking this third option, since I want to ski at Red Mountain, Phoenix Mountain, and at Baldy Mountain, all along Highway 3.
1 comment:
I'm adding this to my list of places to go ski and stay for a few days.
Post a Comment