Castle Peak and Conundrum Peak

15th wedding anniversary trip, August 2009 (click pictures to enlarge)

Saturday - The trip started with a nice traffic jam in Denver resulting in a detour thru Morrison and Evergreen Colorado. No problem, we had never been thru those towns.

We were able to stop by the Colorado Ski Museum in Vail Colorado.

Bonus shots of Kristi Snow Kats were found at the museum.

On to Glenwood Springs, we stayed at the Hotel Denver and ate at the Bayou (thanks for the recommendation Chris S). A nice walk in Glenwood Springs turned up the neon sign of a steak house in Glenwood, named Juicy Lucy's Steakhouse.

Sunday - On our way to Snowmass Village, we did a little fishing on the Roaring Fork. These deer were taking it easy at a home across the stream.

Our view from the balcony in Snowmass.

Castle Peak and Conundrum Peak - August 3rd, 2009

We started from a parking spot just above dispersed campsite 7, but below the first water crossing at 6:45am. Elevation 10,100ft.

Yes, that is all of the gear for the ascent on my back. Pack with water was 20#. Crampons are inside the pack in this picture, little did Heather know we would be climbing slow fields...

Waterfall at the bridge and really bright sun.

My bad attempt at taking a picture of us by holding the camera and pointing it back at us.

A morning greeting of the many wild flowers on the hike.

Looking back at 11,000 ft.

Pearl Pass to the south.

Climbers ahead of us. Awesome pictures by Heather!

At 12,800 ft., the end of the mining road.

We choose the left snow field for maximum gain with crampons.

Heather about 1/2 way up the snow field.

Conundrum Peak in the background.

Top of the snow field, crampons off for the rest of the ascent.

Top of snowfield panoramic looking southeast.

The Conundrum Peak couloir and first look at the sink hole. To the right of the couloir is the summit with person on top.

The trail up the NW face of Castle.

The low spot in the ridge is the our descent after the Conundrum peak summit.

Ridge hiking to the top of Castle peak. Heather dragging me up the hill...

The top of Castle Peak (14,265 ft). Thanks to the guys from Parker Colorado for taking the picture. The Maroon Bells are to the left of Chris.

We had cell phone service at the summit of Castle, we don't know if it was from Aspen or Crested Butte. (click picture for arrow to CB).

Maroon Bells from Castle Peak.

Looking down on Conundrum Peak summit to the right of couloir.

Looking down from the low point of the ridge between Castle and Conundrum Peaks.

A good look at the northwest route up Castle Peak from the snowfield.

Heading up Conundrum peak, Heather grabbed the camera, so this is what you get.

Summit of Conundrum Peak. Thanks to the Parker Colorado hiker that took the picture.

Maroon Bells from Conundrum Peak.

Wild flowers at over 14,000ft.

Looking south at Castle Peak, notice the two hikers on the snow field. Yep, it was that steep!

Heading down into the upper snowfield.

We were a little worried about this part of the descent, but there was a place at the snow line to gear up with crampons and poles.

No glissading for us on this upper snow field. Neither of us wanted to chance taking a bath in that sink hole.

Castle peak looking south.

This is part of the separation of the sink hole. Notice the solid ice, it is tough to tell the size of the ice in that picture, but it is at least 10 ft tall.

Finally off the upper snowfield and around the sinkhole, we crossed a flat to the lower snow field we had hiked in the morning. It took a little bit of coaxing, but I got Heather to glissade down the lower snowfield. Check out our tracks of clean snow in this picture.

The pitch on the upper part of the snow field was 40-45° and was a quick descent. At the narrow part of the field, we stopped to regroup, then I continued down to get video of Heather.

Click image to watch video: