Conundrum Peak

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 7/8/2025, By: wwdonaldson
Info: Good conditions. Microspikes definitely required. There’s still a good amount of snow at about 1 mile from the top. Please take the right gulley down, if you’re going to glissade. Almost had to call search and rescue up there because two boys went down the wrong one and almost got stuck. Be careful if you’re going to glissade. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/22/2025, By: timkoh
Info: Amazing conditions! Camped about 2 miles in. The next day, started hiking around 5:30, summited Castle around 8:30 and Conundrum at 9:30. Hit the saddle just before 10 and glissaded all the way down, the snow was nice and soft. My buddy didn't use an ice axe and was fine, but I like the extra safety so used it until the slope lessened and let off the brakes. Glissaded down the other 2 snow fields and had a blast of a day! Enjoy it while it's still in! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/21/2025, By: Caedmonn
Info: Drove to about 11,400' slept in my truck and started hiking about 3:45, summited castle at 6:30 then conundrum at 7:30, plenty of snow still on the headwall but there was really any concern as it was so stable being so early. Just used microspikes. Went down the snow at the saddle and lost control and slid most of the way, was totally fine as the runout is so long. Wouldn't necessarily recommend doing that tho, it was pretty icy so not easy glissading, in the process of losing control my ice axe got stuck in the snow, if anyone sees it and would be willing to get it back to me that'd be awesome! Insta is @caedmonnewland id be happy to come pick it up wherever. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/20/2025, By: Suley888
Info: We got our stock jeep rubicon up to 12,200 feet. Snow, ice, and multiple large boulders made further travel impossible. Still pretty good!! Started at 515 am and got to the headwall a around 6. Snow was nice and solid going up and didn't pose a problem at all, we used spikes and poles, no crampons or ice axe. The wind was the true demon today. It made the journey pretty stressful as gusts were extremely powerful and there are multiple places where exposure is bad. We hiked up castle first, then conundrum. We did take the "short cut" back down at the dip in the saddle, but BE WARNED. Even as early as 8 am the snow there was slushy and did not hold. We ended up glissading, which i completely admit was inadvisable as I mentioned before we didnt bring ice axes or helmets for that matter. We both made it down without incident which I account more to luck. The headwall snow was holding up better, and the glissading opportunities weren't nearly as dire. If you plan to do castle and conundrum and not resubmit castle, bring gear and go SOON. With the recent heat wave it's not getting a good refreeze overnight even. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: chadahooche_
Info: Fantastic conditions. Highly recommend bringing a mountain bike to go up and back down the Pearl Pass after the designated campsites. No snowshoes (and didn't need them) but did bring spikes and an axe to get down the snow gully/saddle between each peak. This is steep so we chose to downclimb rather than glissade. Group behind us glissaded and were quite out of control on the way down. Easy, chill glissades back down to the road after that. 2 min visual trip report here: https://youtu.be/pqpP1Nj_vBc 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 6/10/2025, By: timewarp01
Info: Nice sunny day on C&C. Very firm continuous snow for the whole length of the couloir. Only a few patches on the ridge to Castle. Castle’s N couloir is looking very patchy but could still be climbed almost to the top without hitting rocks. Used crampons for the couloir but did not bring or need snowshoes. The snow was softening up in the late morning so get out early! Attaching some pics of the conditions as well as a couple of fellow climbers I ran into. Nice meeting y’all! 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: andibertolina
Info: Ascended Conundrum couloir, topped out Conundrum Peak then skied back down the couloir. We were ascending the couloir around 800am with boot-top deep booting conditions and skiing down was pretty mushy but still fun. We then traversed over to near the saddle between Castle and Conundrum to ascend back to the ridge to head for Castle. We were able to skin almost back to the ridge (just had to boot the last 50 or so feet). The ridge from Conundrum to Castle is mostly snow free, just a few drifts here and there but we didn't need crampons to ascend. We topped out Castle then headed fort he N couloir to descend. Despite other trip reports, we were able to ski down the N couloir pretty easily. Sure there are some rocks, and these will melt out more as we are in June now but from a skier's perspective, I would rather deal with minimal rocks on skis than walk down the summer trail. We started from campsite 7 right before the creek crossing but some 4 runners made it up about 1 mile and 500' further up the road until they were stopped by snow drifts on the road. Even if the snow melts there is a big fallen tree about 2 miles in that is blocking the road for now. 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 5/20/2025, By: Youngan
Info: Conundrum couloir skied deep on Tuesday 5/20/25. About 12” fresh in the upper couloir. Some dry loose avy coming down. Started at campsite 7, road was on and off snow for about 2 miles 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: NathanRL
Info: Skied/rode the couloir at 10 today and it was in great condition, no noticeable runnels but a little wet slide debris well below the apron. Chalky but clumpy would be my best description of the snow—there were 6 inches that weren’t that well consolidated but had bits of crust on top of an icier layer. Of course more new snow coming in. 

Route: East Face above couloir
Posted On: 5/5/2025, By: FrankP
Info: Skied Conundrum on Saturday. As reported, the couloir is pretty trashed...at least for my taste. Skied the east face skiers right above the couloir. Superb corn harvest all the way back down to the Green Wilson Hut. 

Route: Conundrum Couloir
Posted On: 4/25/2025, By: ericahlstedt
Info: There is continuous snow still from around the castle freek falls junction at 10,000, a few miles from the winter closure in Ashcroft. We started at 345 in sneakers hiking to the continuous snow line, summited Conundrum at 845, waited on the summit and descended at 1030. Back at car at 1230ish. RT 14ish miles, ~5000ft, 8.75hrs. Unlike yesterday on Pacific Peak, too thick of clouds and higher winds prevented anything from softening or corning up. We bailed on going for E face of Castle since conditions weren't seeming to improve and the North Couloir did not like in. Where did all of the snow go? Everything skied very firm and icy, but edgeable, until getting back on the road much lower down. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 10/14/2024, By: erinicole23
Info: There was almost no snow for the entire route. Brought micro spikes but did not need them. Went down the standard castle peak route and did not try the scree field. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 9/30/2024, By: NativeTransplant
Info: Basically no snow or ice on the entire route; no spikes or axes needed. Going down the scree slope in the saddle instead of going back up castle saves a lot of time and effort but is steep and loose. 

Route: Castle and Conundrum
Posted On: 9/16/2024, By: BricART
Info: The snow from the previous days made this a little more sketch than normal. While there wasn't a lot of it, there was snow/ice on portions of the use trail up the East ridge of Castle and down the North ridge on the way to Conundrum. It was easy enough to go around, but I definitely got into some (very very easy) class 3 terrain. More snow this week will only complicate things if any of it sticks. 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2024, By: awatch26
Info: Hiked Conundrum via the saddle. This is a steep snow climb! Summer conditions once you gain the ridge to the summit. I lost one of my purple black diamonds poles at the top of the glissade. If anyone finds it and brings it down, please text me at 952-221-9637 .