chalkstone couloir / back of castle mtn

Generally good condition. Parking lot for 6 and was booting up the couloir by 9. lower couloir has some boot top powder, then as you go up the booting tended to be about 4-6inches max of penetration so pretty good. Crampons were appreciated, especially for getting over the rock under the rock (which can be scrambled over and skied over coming down if you don’t mind a 4 ft drop onto a relatively mellow lower pitch). We went early due to rapid warming happening after 9. it was definitely colder in the couloir all the way. i was pleasantly surprised there was not too much overhead (but I am an amateur and can’t see everything). second picture is the top cornices (which are not massive). bring ax if you want to get spicy and try to top out- if definitely looked possible to boot up the last 5m to top out, probably not super possible to ski the last bit, but we chose conservatively to turn around and hit a pretty great line with good sheltered snow quality! fan below was sun baked ++. The approach in has no snow for the first 3.5km of the trail but it’s a pleasant dry walk with skis on back.