Castle Mountain North (Banff)

On Saturday October 20 2007 Wietse joined me for a (repeat) slog up into the Castle Mountain environs after failing on the Kane summit back in June 2006. At that time we had only managed to nab Helena Ridge and Stuart Knob and somewhat annoyingly managed to NOT nab the true summit of Castle Mountain despite taking 10 hours to complete the trip. I captured the mood well in a caption below one of my photos from Stuart Knob.

I still can’t believe we didn’t do the 15 or 20 minute hike to nab it…

Unfortunately, once again in 2007, we chose a time of year that did not guarantee very nice conditions – once again in the form of snow. Despite only nabbing the south summit, it still took us a whopping 10 hours and was cold and cloudy with limited views and limited enjoyment to boot. Some more comments from that outing make my feelings at the time clear.

This trail is exceedingly boring. If you can’t find a more interesting trail in Banff National Park you are not looking hard enough my friend!

I’m here to assure you that there are a lot of lakes and larches and cliffs in the Rockies that are the result of much nicer hiking trails and you should concentrate on them first – unless you really like 8 km approach hikes on rock-hard fire roads with no views whatsoever. Your choice, you’ve been warned.

A 10 hour day that had some good conversation and some good views but I’m sure glad I don’t have to repeat it any time soon.

I must have been pretty serious about not repeating the Rockbound Lake slog, because it took me 20 years to finally come back for the highest peak on the massif and the actual, official summit. I have no idea why Alan Kane put the lower south summit in his popular scrambles book but most folks don’t actually nab Castle Mountain, despite being pretty sure they have. 😉 Despite rumors and maps to the contrary, the true (north) summit is higher than both Stuart Knob and Helena Ridge – obvious when you stand on top. On reflection, I might have been a little harsh with my assessments from the previous two ascents on the Castle Mountain massif. One of my favorite photos from that time period is looking over Rockbound and Tower Lake from the summit of Helena Ridge.

Castle Mountain and Eisenhower Tower, the plateau and Rockbound / Tower Lake from the summit of Helena Ridge.

Doesn’t look THAT bad does it? Maybe I’m mellowing with age, who knows? As we drove the trans-Canada highway from YYC to the mountains, Wietse and I both commented more than once about the thick smoke that was hanging in the air. Our original objective demanded clear views – or at least clearish and we weren’t confident that the smoke would clear up by the time we got anywhere near the summit. Time to switch objectives – but to what? I remembered a trip report from Mike and Liz earlier in the summer where they’d bagged the true summit of Castle Mountain and threw it out as an option. Wietse was immediately in. Once again we’d be tackling this area in less-than-ideal conditions. Hmmm.

Castle Mountain (True Summit) Route Map.

We started up the hardpack trail from the parking lot at 07:30 but were still among the first to leave. A group behind us threatened to catch up but never did. We chatted our way up the very familiar approach to one of our favorite ski mountaineering training areas – Helena Ridge East. Despite being boring, we thought the time went by quickly and were soon enjoying the Tower Lake meadows.

Nearing Tower Lake after a long hike on a boring road.

From the meadows the trail steepened considerably, once again providing nice views and gaining another 100 or so meters of the elevation we needed.

It's a smoky late summer day near Tower Lake.

The trail steepens just under Rockbound Lake.

Finally, 2 hours from the car, we found ourselves at the very peaceful shores of Rockbound Lake. The smoke wasn’t horrible with the closer in views of this lovely alpine bowl and our choice for the objective was so far confirmed as we filled our water bottles and started towards the obvious trail snaking its way towards an avalanche gully NE of the lake shores.

Views back to outliers of Helena Ridge (L) and Eisenhower Tower (R) from the shores of Rockbound Lake.

Rockbound Lake. We'll ascend next to the open scree slope at distant left here.

Neither of us remembered this part of the route from either of our two previous ascents – we must be getting old or something. 🙂 Whatever there used to be, there is now a highway up steep dirt and shale slopes climber’s right of the avalanche slope.

A steep dirt 'n shale trail to the plateau above.

The trail continues across the scree basin to gain the plateau at left.

The trail is a highway, snaking its way up to the plateau.

There was one lone hiker in front of us and he was in a hurry and managed to stay in front until he cut off towards Helena Ridge. We took in views over Rockbound and Tower lakes before continuing on to the huge hanging valley between Castle South, Stuart Knob and Helena Ridge.

Great views back over Tower (L) and Rockbound (R) lakes with the entire Castle Mountain massif. The Kane summit at left with the true summit at distant right.

Views from the Rockbound Lake lookout over the Castle Mountain plateau and massif. The true summit at distant C-R and Helena Ridge at upper right.

Every time we’d hiked this plateau, conditions had been very wet and snowy. It looked very different on today’s hike! It reminded us very much of our day on Pulsatilla Mountain – which makes sense considering it’s part of the exact same massif.

Hiking along the massive plateau towards Stuart Knob.

Dramatic views back to Eisenhower Tower.

Views back over the plateau towards Eisenhower Tower and the south summit were dramatic in the morning haze and smoke. Views towards the north summit were a little clearer but also foreshortened. The true summit can’t be seen from anywhere on the approach so Stuart Knob acts as the target for most of it.

A perfectly flat little alpine meadow tucked into the rocky plateau.

We weren’t exactly sure where to break an easy headwall at the NW end of the plateau but we could spot a trail in scree beneath Stuart Knob already from the start of our hike so we targeted that. It worked perfectly. After easy hiking up loose scree and rocky ledges, we started trudging up a trail in the scree – just loose enough to be quick on descent but stiff enough to assist on the climb too.

Dramatic, smoky views back over the plateau as we ascend the headwall.

A trail in the scree ahead of Wietse leads to another trail snaking its way left to the summit.

On another scree highway leading up towards the summit – still out of sight here.

After gaining ~100 meters on the scree run, we were surprised to see the trail continue curving its way up towards Castle Mountain’s summit. We both expected it to go to Stuart Knob, but a highway in scree continued to assist us ever upwards. We were now finally gaining height on other summits surrounding the plateau, including Stuart Knob, Helena Ridge and the south summit.

Views to the summit (L), Protection Mountain (C) and Stuart Knob (R) over the scree highway.

The short east ridge to the summit isn't as tough as it looks – easy scrambling at most.

Dramatic views back along the massif from the east ridge, the Trans Canada Highway at lower right here.

We by-passed a low scree bump on climber’s right – still following the scree highway – before finally encountering what looked like it might be actual scrambling terrain. It wasn’t, really. Easy scrambling over some loose ledges on the east ridge led to the true summit shortly after the scree bump.

Summit views over the TCH at left, towards Protection Mountain with Pulsatilla, Stuart Knob and Helena Ridge visible. Bonnet Peak in the distance at center.

Leaving the summit back along the east ridge with incredible views along the massif at right.

The summit views were somewhat limiting due to the smoky haze both to the east and west, but we did have some nearby dramatic landscapes. The incredible walls of the Castle Mountain massif stretching out to the SE took top honors. Another interesting view was towards Protection Mountain.

Protection Mountain's SE face with a lovely alpine valley tucked below.

A lovely, hidden alpine valley tucked in below Protection Mountain's SE face.

The east ridge has lots of ledges and easy routes to bypass any difficulties. And it's very short.

As we hiked back down the east ridge towards the scree bump, we noticed brilliant blue colored rocks scattered everywhere at our feet. This was very strange! On ascent I’d noticed a few of them but assumed they were blue paint to mark the way somehow. Now however, it was obvious that the blue color was embedded in the rock. Coming home and doing some Internet sleuthing, I think this is Azurite which is a form of copper mineral. It is often found with malachite – a green colored mineral which was also present in the rocks.

Striking blue rocks! We thought it was paint at first.

The blue color is from copper minerals, likely azurite which is found with the green colored malachite.

Wietse descends towards Stuart Knob. This is desert-like terrain!

These blue colored rocks are so unique I think they make this summit worth it on their own – nevermind tagging a huge mountain that towers over hwy 1 and impresses over 4-million tourists a year!

The scree highway is obvious as Wietse traverses back towards Stuart Knob.

We made very short work of descending the scree highway back to the smoky plateau and decided to hug the NE side of the valley on exit just to try something a little different. This worked well.

It was interesting to note that instead of the swamp and wet areas that we remembered from our last two trips here, this time the landscape reminded us of a desert. There was very little water available and the colors were dull grays and brown, in part thanks to all the smoke hanging around.

The "desert theme" carries on over the plateau.

Tiny figures at the lookout at left with Eisenhower Tower looming above through smoke in the distance.

At one point the smoke was so bad that we could both smell it and taste it. It took me a few days to recover from breathing it in, I had a low headache and cold-like symptoms and so did Wietse. Eventually we were back at the Rockbound Lake overlook, snapping a few last photos of the stunning scene far below.

Incredible Rockbound Lake from the lookout.

There is a reason that this hike is so popular I guess. IG is full of photos showing the beauty of the lake and in the right conditions it is quite lovely. We made short work of the steep dirt and shale trail back to lakeshore where we encountered another “desert” landscape.

Once again the desert theme comes into play – this time from the shores of Rockbound Lake.

The area was MUCH busier on exit but we were very grateful to have trees for the shade as it was now a smoking hot afternoon. The road felt long after a while, just as we expected it might. There is no way to speed up that long access to Rockbound Lake unless you run it or bike it (illegally). We both really wished Parks Canada would open up at least the first few kms to bikes but that will never happen.

Clinging on despite being rooted in a solid slab of Rockies rock!

A hot, dusty return down the headwall below Rockbound Lake.

Our round trip time of 7.5 hours surprised us, considering we gained more height and did more distance than our much younger selves way back in 2007 and still beat our time by 2.5 hours! I guess this goes to show that age is just a number and even as we approach (and pass) 50 years old, it is still possible to be reasonably fit. Despite this being a backup peak with limited views thanks to smoky skies, I really enjoyed the true summit of Castle Mountain. I’m also not sad that it took me 3 trips to finally get it – the area is quite beautiful and it’s never a bad thing to experience beauty more than once.