6 day Castle Mountain Resort snow forecast

Goliemoi from Canada writes:

I had mixed feelings about Castle when I visited last December. So I decided to list both the pros and cons of the resort as I see it.
Pros:
- Unbelievable snow: I don't know if I was just luck or something but in most places the powder was knee deep and it hadn't snowed in days! When I first arrived, I was astonished to find completely untracked powder right underneath the chairlift! This alone made my trip worth the (relatively) long travel.

- Great steeps: I fell in love with the steeps at this resort, especially those leading off the top bowl and the south side chutes. Wide, fast, fun steeps, coupled with brilliant snow makes for a good time indeed!

- Good scenery: I was especially enamored with adjacent mountains, which are very beautiful

- Lots of vertical: Going from top to bottom is a pretty big run, rivaling that of Lake Louise and others.

Cons:
- Slow chairs: I know this is probably a lot like beating a dead horse, but anybody coming to this resort should know, the chairs are painfully slow and small. For me this did not detract from the overall general experience, just know you probably won't fit in as many runs as you would at other resorts

- A lack of run options: I myself found this very perplexing, but by the end of the day I was having trouble finding runs I had not already skied. I attributed this to a number of factors. First off, the mountain is really limited to the runs serviced by the Tamarack Chair, as those were the only ones with decent powder coverage. Runs near the bottom tended to be hardpacked and not worth the slow trip back up. Secondly, the trip back up the mountain is a slow ascent, so I tried to stay up high to pack in as many runs as possible.

- South Side chutes can be a pain: I wasn't particularly irked by this, but unfortunately my father was: the South Side chutes can be a pain to ski. First of all, in order to access the chutes, one has to travel a relatively long traverse. Again, this didn't bother me that much, but it seemed to frustrate my father. Furthermore, and even more importantly, after skiing a chute, you have to traverse a long, flat run that brings you back to base, where you begin your long trip back up to do it all over again. Ultimately, you're spending a long time traversing and riding the chair, just to ride one really good run.

Misc:
- I did not find that the winds were much of a hindrance, one or two wind stops, normal for any resort. Also, they tend to blow all the powder back into place, which is probably the reason for the amazing snow.

- This may not be the best place for beginners; I saw several newbies plummeting face first down the groomed, icy trail under the lift, humorous for me, bad experience for them.

- This is not a con against the resort, more of a humorous observation, but I seemed to encounter a lot of strange people at the hill, including a very excited homosexual, a senile old bat hitting me with her ski pole, and an elderly lifty with a burning desire to move my ski ticket from my zipper to my coat pocket.

In conclusion, yes I would definitely recommend Castle Mountain to anybody, but you may want to try a more modern resort if you aren't into old lifts.