High Sierra Topix

To my surprise I found the trail to the base of Castle Peak from I-80 is actually a very manageable road. One can drive all the way to the east side of Castle Pass. We stopped at the end of the road and found several other cars had made the same drive.
We first climbed Basin Peak and then followed the ridgeline south to the turrets of Castle Peak.
To get to the summit one must hike around the SW side of these turrets.
The summit is at the top of the far SE turret. Climb around to the east side of this turret to find the class 3 route to the top.
This is a picture of my good side climbing. I added this shot to give you perspective on the height of the climb.
There are many great handholds and footholds. If you look carefully you can see “Sport” at the bottom of the climb in the middle of this picture.
The benchmark is at the summit.
There is a little tiny register. This register could use some improvement. It needs at least a ball point pen.
This is a picture of her on the summit.
Yes, it really is “Sport”!
I must admit I got the idea for that picture from Bob Burd. He posted a similar picture and when I saw it I knew I had to capture her in that pose!

Thanks for reading our report!

-Russ

That's a fun one. Thanks for your post which really makes we want to get up there. I think it is finest of the I80 area peaks. I actually messed this one up and missed the summit in the mid 70's when I took the wrong chute and crack system and ended up on the west side of the summit,where I ended up being short of the summit by one short class 4 mantle move over stunning exposure down the N side. I chickened out and didn't do it, so I need to go back and get this one and do a better job of route finding.