Aspen: Castle Creek

Castle Peak
I headed to Aspen last weekend to spend the weekend skiing with Mel and just generally getting out of town. We spent Saturday cruising around Highlands with some friends of Mel's and scoping around in town. Highlands freaking worked my legs, I completely forgot what skiing 2,000 feet of Moguls over and over again will do to your legs. We did hike the bowl once, which got us some softer skiing and killer views. I love hiking Highlands bowl, I'd say other than Silverton, it gets you the closest to an inbounds, out of bounds experience as you'll get in most resorts in Aspen. Plus you get an amazing view of the Bells.

Taking a breather in the view
Skipping taking a look at the X-Games (way too much craziness going on), we got up the next day to meet up with a friend of mine from college, Tyler. Tyler had lined up a sled for us all to take up Castle Creek and meet up with a few of his friends at the Miura hut (I think...) up underneath the East face of Castle Peak. It's a pretty long haul up so it was pretty sweet to get a sled tow, even though my fore arms almost popped. Also, Tys headed up Denali this summer with his brother and the Wildsnow crew (www.wildsnow.com), so not having to worry about keeping up with him the entire bunch of miles in was not a bad idea.

We got towed up to the hut just as the crew that had crashed up there was coming down. Said a few hellos and skinned up, getting ready to gain a quick 500 feet of vertical of slightly wind affected powder just outside the hut (note: this hut was a privately owned hut, not something like the Eiseman pretty sweet thing to have). The climb was short and sweet and the skiing powdery and slightly hooky, but still way fun. The highlight of the trip was undoubtebly the amazingly beautiful basin and creek below Castle creek and Pearl Pass. This area went from mellow slopes to massive peaks roaring out of the ground. We faced what amounts to probably some of Colorado's most technical and vertical terrain leaping straight out of the ground. Obviously, we stuck to the more mellow areas due to avalanche danger and energy, but being back in this part of Colorado made me think ravenously about 13er and 14er season this year. I've got to make sure that I have a better big line season than I did last year, hopefully with the less stressful work load and the prospect of Alaska looming, that shouldn't be too hard.

After hanging out at the hut we headed back out the door to go ski a pillow line. Due to Mel not feeling so hot and the previous mentioning of the crew we were withs skinning ability, we opted to split off and head in the direction of Pearl Pass.

Mel enjoying the wind buff all the way below the peak
We came upon a gradually winding slope that had the same consistency of snow that we'd skied before and even more stunning views of Castle Peak. If I'm not mistaken, Pearl Pass is what 'connects' Aspen and Crested Butte (I tentatively think that doing this traverse would be one hell of an adventure.) I also need to head back and do a hut trip to the Taggert-Wilson Hut. After a stellar run out we snagged a lift back out to the car and headed straight back out to Aspen.
One thing to remember from this trip: More big lines this spring than last!
Review wise: The Arcteryx Atom LT performed stellar, both on its own at highlands and as an insulator on the pretty chilly sled tow out.