"Let's begin the season. Castle PP Traverse: Syncline - St Eloi - Haig - Gravenstafel, 27.4km with 3,130m gain in under 14hrs. Bring the second car, otherwise add extra 4km and 40mins. Got changed in the very last moment (initially Ya-Ha-Tinda was planned) and it was my first time in Castle Provincial Park. Believe it should carry the second, unofficial name: "Escape from crowds". With all busy places anywhere from Kananaskis to Jasper, it's such a drastic contrast. The only our company was a goat family that was showing a way for most of the day, from Syncline to almost Haig. The route was 99% dry and free of snow. Actually, the worst section in terms of snow was the ski resort. It still does have lots of it and was really annoying. For the rest - either bare dry or some minimal amounts that didn't affect at all and will be gone by the next weekend. Mt Syncline A massive mountain with three distinct summits, with prominence of at least 150m each. Guess they ran out of names and it got called as Syncline 1 ("East") - 2 ("Midway) - 3 (main); 2,441m, 2,482m and 2,503m correspondingly. The second biggest patch of snow was on east slopes of the First Peak. But was avoid..." — alexp • Jun 2, 2019

"Started out grinding up the ski runs in the rain, which transitioned to snow. As we got higher, the snow got deeper and there was some residual snow, which had crusted over (with ice). The winds also increased. Leigh-Anne held off on the summit as she was getting chilled. I pushed on to the summit. Needless to say that we did not attempt the traverse over to Haig." — BertB • Oct 15, 2016

"While the route up is via a well graded fire road, the views are still spectacular from the summit. Turned out to be a gorgeous day with nice breaks of sun, fast moving cumulus clouds and winds over 100 km/hr on the summit. As this was my first time, and having failed to read any information on the trail, it took about 30 minutes of rooting around to discover that the trail up continues from behind the explosives shed. Tried every other route near the summit including via the upper lift road, skiers side road and even via the snow fence before discovering the proper trail was tucked in behind the explosives building. Gorgeous sunset on the way home with beams of sunlight piercing the smoke to generate almost a club light effect. Sunset clouds were also amazing. (pictures to follow). Strangely enough all the photos from the ski lift stations show this as Gravenstafel Mountain. Not sure if it is a mountain or if they are just trying to sell it as such. Was going to continue on to Mt. Haig but the winds were blowing way to strong on the summit ridge to make it feel safe so shall return and do Haig via the official route another time." — Mountainman • Sep 29, 2012