Castle Hill Peak

Descargada 1 vez

 -43.29677397, 171.74226215

Si
1383 m	1995 m
1386 m	943 m

			Total
	5.78 km	5.73 km	11.51 km
	2h 28min 56s	1h 39min 23s	4h 8min 19s
	2.33 km/h	3.46 km/h	2.78 km/h

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The hike starts from Porters Pass where there is a car park next to the road. For the first few hundred meters you will find some orange poles indicating the track but nothing else after that. Pretty soon the ascent gets steep and it will stay steep until reaching the first summit of the day, Foggy Peak (1741 m). In addition to the slope you will find some scree so you have to fight for your reward. Going up you may find yourself following what looks like a track only to disappear a bit further up and then reappear again. I think there are at least a couple of them and you'll probably be jumping from one to the other.
Once at Foggy Peak summit you may be lucky and be able to enjoy the nice views or be foggy, as the name of this mountain suggests, and see nothing. In my case, I could not see anything during the ascent but once at the summit it cleared up and I was able to enjoy the views. Looking Northeast, towards Castle Hill Peak, I don't think you can see all the way to the summit, since there is another intermediate summit (The Impostor) in the way, but I could not confirm since it was cloudy in that direction.

From Foggy Peak summit you first go down for a couple of hundred meters and then start ascending again, although on a much gentler slope. From Foggy Peak to The Impostor there are a couple of kilometres, and then another twelve hundred meters to Castle Hill Peak summit.
When walking towards the intermediate summit and further this point, the sky cleared up and I was able to see all the way to the top of Castle Hill Peak. The ascent to Castle Hill Peak looked narrow and exposed and, since it also had some snow patches, I got a bit concerned. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get to the top. Luckily I didn't turn around because once on this final ascent I realised I got it totally wrong. It was neither narrow nor exposed. It is steep and there's scree, but that's about it. Slowly I kept walking until reaching the top.
From the top I could not fully enjoy the views since there were clouds moving around, but what I could see was really beautiful.

Going down it's a lot easier than going up since you can slide down on the scree and have some good fun. Just be careful not to go down on the wrong ridge.
Keep in mind that you still have to go back up to Foggy Peak and fight the scree one last time.