Castle Mountain is for a real kind of ride. I saw that graffiti on hill years ago and it still holds up. They try to market that it's family and beginner friendly, and honestly if you learn to ride here, you can ride most anywhere, but this is an extreme hill. The jump from green to blue is massive and shouldn't be taken lightly. But once you're comfortable enough to ride the blacks? An amazing new world is opened up that I still haven't seen in any other resort. The terrain is spectacular and in a good snow year, the powder is to die for. If you want steep, straight fall lines, go to the Chutes. You want to jump off cliffs? Far Chutes is just a bit further down the traverse. Is the killer wind getting to you? Well if you can survive the traverse, Far North trees has you covered. Oh you're looking for a nice and long winding run with lots of options for side hits? Bandito to North Road is a dream. Prefer something a little easier with more options if you so want? Huckleberry is your place to shine.
Castle's infrastructure is definitely small and on the janky side. The daylodge needs upgrading, there's only one restaurant/bar on hill, unless you go to Airbnb the only lodging is across the parking lot (which the fact most of the hill is ski in, ski out is amazing) and I'm scared most days that I ride their main lift Blue/Sundance (if you know, you know) but the riding is absolutely phenomenal and the community really brings everything together in signature Castle charm. I can also appreciate the slow lifts because it gives your thighs enough time to rest after the intense steepness that Castle is know for but it also spreads riders out on hill that you honestly feel like one of few, that is until you get to bottom of Red and you see the pile up. And coming down after last lap and saddling up to T-Bar Pub is the perfect way to end the day.
The issues lie in that lift tickets prices are getting absolutely ridiculous. They're trying to compete with big name resorts without being in the same league in terms of what they're providing. I get it, running ski hills are expensive but for maybe tens of bucks more, you can just head over to Fernie which has way nicer lifts, nicer day and night lodging, more dining options, and it's a bigger hill (personal preference is still with Castle but they're driving away people who love it for numerous reasons)
You also have to be careful because Castle is a shareholder owned hill, which is great that is not some massive ski conglomerate that owns it but it's held it back in other ways. It's mainly owned by a bunch of old timers that for the longest time, didn't want to change anything because their hill was perfect as is. You can see how that's hurt them in the long run because they've only in recent years got on how important snowmaking is to keeping the hill functioning (the water use limitations are also a big hurdle that I can understand) and how terrible their terrain park is year after year. Like, there's bad, and then there's Castle bad. Opening up a mini park on North Road has helped, but if you've been riding anywhere where they take pride in how their jumps are set up and then you come to Castle?? I'm warning you, dial everything back at least 30% until your comfortable with how it shoots you out or how well the boxes and rails are maintained. It's sad to see how Castle has either directly or indirectly sabotaged their park because on bad snow days, that's where a lot of people are going to want to go. And it's also wise to give people a safe place to learn comfortably instead of them building booters up on hill.
Castle has definitely had its hey day, you can see that in how many great riders it's produced, and my love for the hill will never die (not so much for the people who run it *cough Cole cough cough*) but we're in a new era of skiing and riding. It will be interesting to see how Castle evolves with it. This is definitely a hill you need to check out at least once, it's too special to pass up on
