Castle Peak - A disillusioning fitness test

After a very long break from "real" mountains, I wanted to find out how bad my fitness was. During the past 8 months I did almost nothing which would have helped my fitness. Working "as a contractor" and not really doing any cardio exercise made me wonder how much altitude gain was still possible for me. In order to find out, I chose a goal which I already new and which was relatively easy (= not too long) to reach, even with a not quite optimal fitness level: Castle Peak.

Since we had a normal winter in northern California with almost average precipitation, I didn't know what to take along for this outing. Skis, snowshoes or just my hiking boots? I didn't want to get stuck in the snow, but also didn't feel like takings skis along and carrying them most of the time. Therefore, I decided to bring my snowshoes with me.

I start the hike on the northern side of I-80, close to the Castle peak exit. At this time of the year you can legally park the car at the end of the road. To my surprise there is plenty of snow here and I could have easily brought my skis along. Anyway, the snow is very hard and there is no need for me to put on the snowshoes (they actually stayed on my backpack all day long). I more or less walk along the summer trail (on the left side of the valley) to Castle Pass, which, in the winter time is not always obvious, but it's also not critical since the terrain is very easy. From Castle Pass I then strictly follow the (snow-free) ridge to the first (and lowest) Castle Peak. In order to get to the highest point, I chose the southern access via the south side of the eastern most Peak (Class 3, T5-II).

For my way back down to the car I decide to take the direct way via a chute in the south flank of Castle peak. The relatively easy way down (Class II, T3+, only close to the peak) follows the Upper Castle Creek and eventually takes me back to the trail.

PS: The result of the fitness test is rather disillusioning, but as expected: I really need to work hard to get back into acceptable shape...