Castle Mt., AB 3/14/00 - POW!

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<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 3/17/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>I've done some thinking about this over a long flight back to Florida, and I've got to conclude that this day's combination of snow, terrain and total lack of people makes it my #1 ski day ever - no kidding. Hard to believe, but there were oodles of untracked lines remaining at 4 pm!!! This place has 2800 verts that just don't stop, with a consistent pitch from top to bottom. The entire upper half of the mountain is above timberline, allowing you to roam wherever you wish. Only the very top off-piste had evidence of rocks, where the mountain's prevailing winds had scraped the snow down to bare earth. <BR> <BR>Castle's famous winds were howling on the backside, making the chutes a dicey proposition with tricky windslab. The remainder of the mountain, however, remained sheltered. The top half felt bottomless, with numerous face-shots in thigh-deep heavy powder. On the bottom half a scratchy base was evident, but that didn't present a problem as the heavy fresh snow was everywhere and unblemished. Visibility at the very summit was quite flat, causing us to seek out the definition of the little stubby trees which exist in many places. <BR> <BR>Northern Delight was just that, providing the runs of the day, although it was difficult to pick any favorites - they were all amazing! <BR> <BR>Here's a low-res picture taken from the summit chair: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/512.jpg" ALT="Castle Mt., AB 3/14/00"> <BR> <BR>And here's a link to a 324 kb MPEG movie that Contributing Writer Jim Bauman took of me, proving that face shots abounded: <BR><A HREF="http://www.FirstTracksOnline.com/castle02.mpg">www.FirstTracksOnline.com/castle02.mpg</A> <BR>(This video has not yet been edited - gotta get Jim a tripod or something!;-) )
 
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