Castle Peak intel Jan 2

Left trailhead at 9:40 and gained the SE rim by 11:10. Had to take a more shallow angle wider up the SE arm because the rain crust was still very hard and icy, and even then I was stomp-tracking to get purchase for much of it.  The north facing slopes at the top were, as expected, very crispy from yesterday's rain and no direct sun to soften the top layers. I lingered under the south edge of the rim to give the sun a bit more time to soften the south-facing aspects.  I scrambled a bit on the rim to find a high south chute to run and it was just soft enough between 8-9k at noon. Second lap was even better as the south-facing snow got softer and allowed for a steep skin track line to return up and really creamy 2nd descent at 1:10pm. I am very fussy about warming/wet slides but candidly the SE facing pitches started to lose the strongest direct sun about the time it could get too soft, just as the SW pitches began to "catch up" in getting soft. Light breeze also helped just enough to keep it from overheating too fast. All things considered, leaving trailhead at 10-10:30am might have been optimal, as would have charging one more SW facing pitch at 2pm. Props to the "Rain Castle Peak" observation from 01/01/20 who gave good intel and teed me up for a nice sunny day on the south face.