Backcountry - Castle Peak

About a mile and half into the trail.

In our ongoing quest to not suck on Shasta, we went up to Castle Peak to do a little skinning. Castle Peak is a popular spot for backcountry skiers and snowmobilers. The trailhead is on the summit of I-80, across the highway from Boreal Ski Area.

Due to our huge snowpack, the trail still has several feet of snow on it. However, it's also extremely sun-cupped, so there aren't too many people out.

Nancy on the saddle above Round Valley and the Peter Grubb Hut.

It's a flat skin for almost two miles, and then you climb a short ridge that forms the boundary of the south face and west bowl. We continued up the ridge, stopping for lunch on the rocky knob at the left in the picture.

Removing the skins.

It was a warm day with occasional clouds, just enough to keep us from sweating too much.

Nancy on the lower slope. You can see Boreal, Donner Ski Ranch, Sugar Bowl and Tinker Knob, as well as the backside of Granite Chief Peak and the Palisades much farther back.

The snow was a little punchy, but not bad considering the southern exposure.

Checking out her turns.

Since we came out just for the exercise, we only made one run. The whole trip—including lunch—took us about four and a half hours.

Ski - Squaw in May

At the top of Headwall, starting down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

05/14/06 Sunday

We’re planning a Mt. Shasta trip sometime in June, so I've started hiking/skinng up Shirley Canyon to get in better shape.

It takes an hour and a half to go the two miles or so up to the Shirley Lake lift. Since the only ticket checkers are at the Cable Car, I can ski for free once I get up top.

On the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with Sun Bowl and the Kitchen Wall in the background.

Nancy reluctantly strapped on her telemark skis, since she also wants to ski Shasta and needs to get some turns in to get comfortable on them.

We took a few runs on Shirley and Granite, and then took the reverse traverse off of Siberia to Headwall to ski/hike to KT-22.

Hiking up the Saddle, with the Upper Mountain in the background.

A cat track called the Ho Chi Minh Trail runs along the back of the Headwall and Cornice II runs to get you over to KT.

It has a southern exposure, so it's usually burned out by now, by with all the late-season snow it is still completely covered.

Hiking up the Saddle past Dead Tree.

The Ho Chi Minh takes you to the Saddle, where you can make an easy ten-minute hike up to the top of KT-22.

Nancy posing next to the old gun platform.

You wind up at the top of Chute 75, which got its name from the 75mm howitzer that was used in the ’60s for avalanche control. The gun tripod is still there.

Making turns on West Face.

When I skied West Face a week ago for KT-22’s last day, it had huge moguls and extremely sloppy, punchy snow. Today, the skiing was much better with good corn snow with a light ripple of sun cups.

Nancy between West Face and the First Alternate.

It was well worth the short hike. Rounded moguls with smooth, soft snow is a lot of fun on telemark skis.

Nancy at the top of Rockpile, with the Roof and Shirley Bowl in the background.

05/18/06 Thursday

I hiked up Shirley Canyon again in my ongoing quest to not suck at hiking. I’m using my old Scarpa T2 tele boots to hike in because they’re much more light and comfy than my T1s.

However, I popped out two of the main rivets that hold the upper boot to the shell, where they pivots at the ankles. Normally, you lose a big rivet every few years. But two in one hike?

Nancy getting down on Rockpile.

Nancy’s been working graveyard for the past couple of months, which totally screws up her sleep patterns.

She opted to downhill ski instead of tele, partly due to fatigue, partly due to not wanting to look like a gumby.

Bret getting farther down on lower Rockpile.

We took a few runs on Granite, and then took off to go hike up to KT.

Hiking up from Mainline to the top of Siberia.

Siberia has only been running on the weekends, so we had to hike up to Siberia from Mainline to access the reverse traverse.

This made the hike twice as long—not fun if you just want to get some sleep.

West Face became much more sun-cupped in just a few days.

West Face was excellent a few days ago, but it’s already become much more sun-cupped. I was suprised at how quickly it deteriorated.

Mark making turns on Rockpile, a run off of Granite Chief.

05/25/06 Thursay

Nancy and I went down to Reno yesterday to help Mark “Chingus” Standen with an irrigation problem.

We worked with Mark for years and years at Squaw in Lift Ops, but his real job is with United Airlines.

Nancy on lower Rockpile.

Mark’s irrigation exploded over the winter, so Nancy helped him replace a broken valve in return for an excellent dinner of barbecued salmon and scallops with mango/avocado salsa.

Squaw is wrapping up their ski season this week, so we decided to come out and ski together.

Mark on upper Magoo’s.

I hiked up Shirley Canyon again. The snow has melted enough that I’m encountering weak snow bridges and breaking through on occasion.

While hiking across one patch of snow, one leg broke all the way through and I banged my knee against a rock—scary.

Nancy taking the extreme line on lower Magoo’s.

We had ideal weather—a sunny sky with a strong, cool breeze. The cool air kept the snow from getting slushy, although the runs were still very sticky on the runouts.

Mark in Cork-It-Out.

The only advanced chair running is Granite Chief, so your options are limited. We mostly traversed over to Rockpile and Break-It-Out, with a few groomers thrown in.

Nancy and Chingus at the end of a fun day.

Amazingly, you can still ski all the way down the Mountain Run to the base.