Castle Mountain Resort — Attraction in Alberta

First off, the drive in to Castle from Pincher Creek is the most gorgeous entrance on the Alberta side of the Canadian Rockies that I've driven. Now, get that out of the way, and get to Castle.

From the parking lot, you're surrounded by mountains on all sides, which meant no cell reception. 5 stars for that, because we should be spending more time enjoying our surroundings, and less looking at Facebook. Staff were wonderful from the ticket window, to the repair shop, to the lifts; some of the lift operators give you hugs before you go up, which just makes Castle a feel good place.

The Huckleberry chair is not too long, and takes you to a smaller set of runs, perfect for warming up, or for those who aren't comfortable on steep sections of the main mountain. However, don't be fooled, they're plenty long for the casual skier/snowboarder, and plenty of fun.

Main Mountain was wonderful, lots of options for several experience levels, and lots of good powder found even on the sides of the groomed runs, which made the day very enjoyable.

The repair shop staff were probably the best of the day, and that says a lot! They had my wife's skis tuned and waxed in about 30 minutes, and she was much more comfortable on the mountain afterward.

The food at the pub was excellent among all 4 of our plates. Service was a little on the slow side, but the pub was full, and there were only two servers working. Food quality and friendly staff made up for it.

All in all, Castle is on my short list for a return trip, we had a wonderful,...

Be careful beginners when you try the green zone in Castle mountain. It is actually a blue zone!!! Nominal green zone to me. It was extremely dangerous for us to come down from the hill.

My friends and I went to Castle mountain resort for skiing. We had plan to use only green zone since we all are beginners. The only place that we could confidently practice our skills was green zone close by the magic carpet where most of the children could go over.

I have two years of skiing skills and tried the green zone where the lift takes you to the top of the mountain. I would say after getting out of the lift the left side is absolutely Blue but the right side is a mix of blue and green. So, I tried the right side which the first half of the way and its most important part was extremely difficult to manage. However, the second half of that was pretty OK to slide over. Therefore, we decided to stick to the green zone close by the magic carpet.

It was of course a day full of joy getting on the top of the magic carpet and go over and over although it was boring to use that short distance for our practice. As soon as you wanted to take the first and second turn you were down the hill and you had to go the top of the magic carpet again. I would say that would be nice if we could have more space like really green green zone that we could practice our skills.

Thankfully neither me nor any of my friends were hurt today. We all are safe, sound and delightful that we did skiing in the first day...

Tough day.

Only one lift (blue) running, and conditions poor. High winds cleared off most snow on groomed runs, other than bumps and the trees.

Condition-wise, if you get lucky, this hill’s a dream - if not, like today, it’s… not. If you haven’t been here, be very leery of reviews on this hill, I’ve been coming here for 40 years and there are wayyyyy too many people posting reviews of what they wish Castle was, not what it is, and trying to support the resort… cudos for their loyalty but new comers be warned.

If you ski shoots and trees, Castle can be phenomenal… provided the lifts are running… but conditions here change on a dime, so be wary of committing yourself to a day or more here. Fortunately I’m an hour away, so I can wake up and go when conditions are right - however, today, weather reports said mild winds, warm temp, snow report said great snow coverage - ahead of average - so we were up and on the road hoping for a great day, but encountered a somewhat disappointing experience.

Btw - The T-Bar Restaurant (only on-hill fair other than cafeteria)has good food, great pizza - but is closed for lunch except on weekends, so basic cafeteria fair only for lunch, and when open, it’s only open for takeout apres ski. No dining in - at least for now.

I’ll be back, for sure, like I say, when it’s good, it’s great - but this hill has given me as many days of...