Castle Towers slog

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naomig
naomig

Castle Towers slog

Post by naomig »

I wanted to ski when I got back to Vancouver last week. The weather was super nice so I emailed everyone in hope to find a partner to ski with. Andy replied with the idea of skiing Castle Towers. Well, first he said he might ski Sahale in WA with Mike on Sat and then ski Castle Towers, BC, with me on Sun. I think I might be a little insane but next to Andy I felt like I have normal ambitions. Of course, I know I don't really have the average person's ambitions since I did after all agree to ski Castle Towers in a day.

To sum this the trip in a nutshell, it was a huuuuuuuuge slog (40km), a loooooooooong day (16.5 hours) just to find the N face of Castle Towers with huge bergshrunds and shitty spring snow conditions. Andy and I were so disappointed when we got to the top and looked down the other side :cry:. Ah well, it was my first time skiing past April, it was nice to ski in a t-shirt, it was a good to experience to see what spring snow conditions are like and the views did not falter my memory. It's beautiful out there.

I'll stop rambling and show some pics.

Andy and Jeremy Frimer getting a breather before crossing Garibaldi lake. Jeremy Frimer was a psychology student at UBC, who cleaned and set up new routes in Squamish. He told us that he got a professorship and is moving to Manitoba :shock:
Castle Towers is the big peak in the middle. The N face is on the left side of the peak.
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Looking back at where we came from: across Garibaldi (big) and Sphinx (small) lake.
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Andy skinning towards Phyllis's Engine.
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Mt. Garibaldi looking mighty. (Maddy, I don't want to ski down that face till winter again.)
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This is what we found on the N side when we got to the top :o . It took us only 8.5 hours to get there.
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What we saw were the bergshrunds to the top right of the peak. We ended up dropping in further down left where the shrund was smaller on the NW face.
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Andy heading quickly back to the col to get out of the warm slopes.
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We started at 5:30am and got back at 10pm. We were done. I decided to try drinking chocolate milk after a big day like today cause Sky read somewhere that it's great recovery energy. So, I had a litre in a cooler for when I got back. You might think I'm weird now, but it was the best chocolate milk ever. I drank the whole litre in two goes. Andy did the normal thing and had a can of beer.

Done!
Last edited by naomig on Thu May 17, 2012 3:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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skykilo
olikyks
from Santa Fe
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Re: Castle Towers slog

Post by skykilo »

What a beautiful day for a really long walk! Garibaldi doesn't look so bad to me?

Atraslin
Giver don't skidder

Re: Castle Towers slog

Post by Atraslin »

Naomi skiing up to Phyllis Engine.
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Naomi dropping in.
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Naomi skiing passed the bergshund.
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Castle Towers NW face was my nemesis. My 4th attempt, so I was stoked to finally ski down this face. Thanks to Sky who got
me started on this obsession. I was surprised Naomi was motivated to go back, she sloggged it out no problem. Now you have a base
for future ultramarathons on skis.

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