Castle East Face

Type: Backcountry or Sidecountry

This is one of the prize lines in the Elks. You'll work your way over steep, exposed terrain to reach several options of chutes to work your way down the face.

From the Summit of Castle Peak, ski directly east, over a very steep roll. Then work your way skiers-right until you can see down a few chutes that clearly connect to the snowfield below. Do not ski the center chute, directly fall-line from the summit unless you're certain it's filled in.

This chute only fills in on especially high-snow years. Work your way down whichever chutes you've picked. There are plenty of safe-ish spots to leapfrog your partners and areas where you can skip from one chute to another. Once you're down, continue east to pearl pass road. You'll ski by Green Wilson and Taggart huts, as you continue down the road and back to Ashcroft.

Lou Dawson gave this route a difficulty rating of D14 ( loudawson.com/rating-ski-de…).