Snowsure: 3.8
- Occasionally gets enough snow for skiing
- Is often closed due to a lack of snow
- Occasionally suffers from a lack of snow
- Rarely suffers from a lack of snow
- Castle Mountain Resort is snowsure even in the poorest seasons
Visitor reviews for Castle Mountain Resort Ski Resort
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(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
Latest
February 23, 2012
Johnny Shotonbothsides
Johnny Shotonbothsides
I've skied Castle for about five years and have seen the best and worst of what this mountain has to offer. The ticket prices are ridiculous considering the amount of terrain. The lifts are terribly slow. At the top of red chair you have to traverse around a kilometer to get to the good runs. The terrain park crew are a bunch of lazy bums that can only get their shit together at the end of the year. If you do get lucky and get out here on a weekday after snow you can get first tracks all day. There is an expensive restaurant and a cafeteria to eat in and the pub opens after the hill closes. The only place to stay is a hostel but pincher creek isn't too far away. If you can only go for a weekend go to Fernie.
January 21, 2012
Brian
Brian
The Castle rocks! Nice pow today. I wish it was the 80's with only a T-bar and no beginners. Great hill, great people. I used to pay 8 bucks for a 1/2 day, now I pay 250$ to get my 4 kids in, and I love it! I can't wait for my 5th kid to be ready (she's only 2). I hope my kids never ski at any other hill. The Castle is for skiers! If your want a fancy lounge to show off your new suit .. go elsewhere. Repeat: the Castle rocks, nice pow today!
January 17, 2012
Rockjock
Rockjock
Gosh, gee, but I'm an "oil guy" from Calgary. I guess I was skiing Castle since the "old days" (early '70's) of Matt, and the cowboys and ranchers. But we were ripping the T Bar slopes, and not cramming ourselves in the old day lodge.
We still come down - preferably during the week, because lift capacity can get bogged down on weekends.
I won't go on 'cause I don't want to get anybody too excited.
January 12, 2012
matt
matt
December 31, 2011
mike
mike
December 30, 2011
tony
tony
I will admit my conflict of interest-I ski Castle all the time.
Don't come here expecting Sunshine or Lake Louise and if you like Nakiska, Castle will be too much hill for you, and too few amenities. If you are coming to ride/ski not to shop/eat out, you will be satisfied.
It's a co-op owned by the skiers-so don't expect new/fast lifts anytime soon. The lifts are reliable, but red sometimes closes due to wind.
If you do come, find a snow host or someone who can show you the mountain. Vast, wide open, big mountain terrain with all the hazards that come with it. When the snow is good, it could be the best place in the eastern Rockies. If it's raining in Fernie, it's dumping pow at Castle, the base elevation is 300 meters higher.
It's about as big as Marmot in Jasper but many of the 'runs' are unmarked, and you have to know how to get to them safely.
Drifter is the equivalent of 3 runs at Louise, all fall line, ungroomable, and few can ski it top to bottom without a break. One run down it will make you a friend of Castle for life! Like any ski hill, it has it's challenges, but you should try it out-if you are up to it.
And then there is the Cat ski operation-great lines, and cheap.
I wouldn't spend too much time reading the 'bashing' reviews, they were clearly looking for something else: Sunshine, groomers, and somewhere to sip a latte. Try out Castle for yourself, see if you 'fit in', if not, there are many other places to go and be pampered. We don't care what you wear, how much makeup you have on, or how old your skis are but you can ride with us if you can keep up.
Gotta go, still snowing, 15 cm since 0500 hrs. Red chair is wind stopped, but I think I know where that wind has deposited a little powder stash...
November 26, 2011
ken
ken
You might hit it lucky on a weekday in the spring when skiing enthusiasm slows and nobody hears about some fresh pow that day. Why take a chance with slow lifts or even a chair going down, when you could be getting lots of vertical at one of the larger resorts that offer high speed quads at relatively the same price. Castle lift lines can get pretty crowded these days. You also got to take a chance of you being in one of the windiest places in Canada, not nice stuck on a chairlift with 80 km> per hr wind gusts.
November 24, 2011
Sean
Sean
Castle Mountain is the best place I've shredded. Think about it, steepest fall line in Canada, powder every week that makes a lot of American resorts look like someone is dumping a box of fake snow out so someone looking out the window can pretend they're experiencing Christmas with SNOW.
Lifts are slow as molasses, but the benefit of that is having a nice break from your ride down to bring it on your next run. By the end of the day, you'll be glad the lifts give you that extra couple minutes to refresh. Yes, it's windy often, but without the wind, much of Castle would not have wind swept powder every night. The wind is why Castle, or at least the high bowls always have powder the next day, regardless of whether it actually snowed or not! This is huge! For me anyways.
Someone mentioned that you're better off going to Sunshine? Clearly you didn't spend much time taking the Continental lift up to the top! The coldest, most open lift I've ever experiences, despite not being as windy as Castle. Sunshine gets lots of powder, but without fail 20 minutes after the lifts start going, tracks are everywhere. It was so bad my last year there, that my buddy and I didn't even bother doing laps, just head for out of bounds and find a sweet line and/or build a booter and spend all day doing that. You know a ski hill has gotten boring when you do that every day. Why so boring for my buddy and I you might ask? Well, hardly any real steeps or challenging runs. Delerium Dive, Sunshine's sketchiest run some might say is comparable to a black diamond run at Kicking Horse Resort. Don't get me wrong, Sunshine is great, if you're a beginner and the thought of waiting in a lift line for 10 minutes in the middle of the week doesn't bother you.
Oh-yeah, should mention Castle falls short of Kicking Horse. You just can't beat a 15 minute gondola ride from bottom to the top of the mountain, relaxing and smoking a fatty while spotting the lines you're going to take on your 20 minute descent down the mountain. Just incredible to be able to ride down the mountain for a long enough duration that you actually have to stop half way down to have a drink from the camel because yr sweating from carving into the heavy fluffy stuff through crazy tree lines or steep fall lines that make many mountains look tame. Oh yeah, my bad, this is about Castle.
Aside from having a shorter fall line and lack of gondola ride up, Castle is top notch. --And I'm a snowboarder. Apparently skiers like it more... Not sure why, boarders like the steeps too, or at least some of us do.
November 18, 2011
matt
matt
Castle is probably the best ski hill you can find if you hit it right. March 1 2011, youtube it... 80cms overnight and probably another 40cm throughout the day. And tons of steep slopes and gnar. It was Tuesday and empty, nipple deep pow top to bottom all day. For a 65$ ticket, it beats any day of heli-skiing for 650$.
But if there's no fresh snow it sucks, steep, choppy wind raped snow.
November 14, 2011
Jose the skier
Jose the skier
Castle Mountain Resort is the worst place you could ever go to ski, the lift tickets cost almost as much as Sunshine, the lift lines are longer than Fernie on a powder day, and the runs are more confusing than Lake Louise.
Don't waste your time, go to Fernie or Sunshine! But don't go to Castle? You will regret it!
Nearest