Devil's Castle part II

A couple weeks ago I tried to ski/climb devil's castle but was unable to make it all the way to the top.  Yesterday Greg and I gave it a try.

Here is Greg looking at were we were headed.

It got pretty steep in some spots on the way up.  

I took this picture after sliding down the hill about 40 feet with my legs spread apart.  I slipped while trying to do a switchback up above Greg.  I slid at about 5mph and just couldn't arrest myself until I ran into a tree below. 

We stashed our skis at the South false peak and switched to crampons and ice axes.

Our destination was the peak on the left in the picture below.  Looks can be deceiving -  it took us almost 3 hours from this point to make it to the top and back.

It was very steep at certain points.

With cliffs on the other side.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

It took a little bit of bouldering to get to the top.

We ended up rappelling down the last little bit and donating a bit of webbing and a carabiner to the mountain gods.  (maybe it wasn't the mountain gods, since it is the devil's castle.)

Then it was on to some steep skiing on the way down.

Here is my favorite picture from the trip.