The most exciting development at the Castle is the NEW MOUNT HAIG and NEW HUCKLEBERRY CHAIR. This is a completely new mountain that our guests will get to experience this winter. The lift-accessed terrain is predominantly novice and intermediate. The 9 main runs add approximately 27 hectares of new terrain with 1100 feet of vertical drop. The new runs on Mount Haig are north to north east facing and are not as wind affected wind as other mountain faces in the area. As a result, the new terrain will have great snow coverage throughout the season. Tons of natural snow and easy cruising runs will make the groomed runs of Mount Haig the ideal playground for those that found the Castle too challenging. The Dopplemeyer fixed grip triple chair (see the attached picture of towers being flown in) is approximately 100m south of the T-Bar Pub and Grub. The ride will take a little over 9 minutes and will lift you to a fantastic viewpoint that showcases the entire valley. For the more adventurous skiers and snowboarders, a Freestyle Terrain Park will be developed on a run called Sidewinder. This area will have rails and other terrain features that will excite those that want challenges that Mother Nature could not create. The new lift will make access to approximately 500 hectares of backcountry touring and extreme skiing and snowboarding much closer. This terrain will be outside the area boundary so anyone venturing into this zone must have very strong knowledge of backcountry hazards. The touring, novice and intermediate terrain are the perfect compliment to the existing exciting mountain that people have enjoyed for 40 years. Now everyone in the family or in the car can feel comfortable coming to the Castle.

Thanks to a very strong working relationship with Travel Alberta, a Warren Miller film crew came to Castle in the spring just after we closed. The first week they were filming at Castle, a large crew of specially picked athletes from Whistler and Canmore experienced a weather disaster with rain to the top of the mountain. We were able to get about half a day of good skiing and snowboarding shots and some interesting storyline material but not enough to make a movie. Fortunately, the film crew said they would come back if they were promised two bluebird sky days. We promised and it came true the following week with the bonus of almost 40cms of fresh Powder up top. With the window of opportunity being dictated by erratic weather patterns, there was no time to round up the full crew. However, our local athletes proved to have the nerve to do whatever was needed for the camera, perhaps more so than the athletes from other mountains. Our local boys were amazing in the way they did whatever the cameramen asked and they even created some truly unique filming opportunities. You have to see the movie to believe it. The weather graced us long enough to actually film the first ever descents of the east face of Mount Haig (see the attached picture of Pete Hodgson being the first ever). Our four local athletes, Peter Hodgson, Jeff Harker, Jean-Marc Martel and Peter McGee, all had the experience of a lifetime by flying to the top of Mount Haig in a helicopter and being the first four people to ski and ride down a face that would challenge the best in the world. This fall there will be a 12 minute mini-movie exclusively on Castle shown at every Warren Miller Movie show in Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This is huge world exposure for our Castle.

The new Barnaby Steakhouse and Fireside Lounge will be open for this up-coming winter. This new restaurant will have plate service in the evening and a buffet at lunch. It will have a menu that will offer appetizers to entrees, seafood to steak and it will provide a quiet atmosphere for a hearty après ski meal. The restaurant is located in the east end of the daylodge and will have fantastic views of Barnaby Ridge from every table. There will be a fireplace and TV in the lounge so you can warm up and watch the Warren Miller Movie over and over again.

Phase 4 of the base area development is well underway. There will be many more beds in the base this year with twenty-two townhouse style condos under construction or already built. Most of them will be finished by Christmas and a few others will be started in the fall. There is a total of 40 units approved in Phase 4. These multi-family units will be privately owned but encouraged to be part of the Castle Central Reservations. This rental pool will increase the availability and variety commercial beds in the base area. Castle is still the only resort in Alberta with privately owned ski-in, ski-out accommodations and one of three that have any kind of commercial beds for rent in the base area.

High speed internet is coming to Castle. This system will access the Supernet via radio frequencies and will help Castle join the high speed communications generation. Castle has been working with Pathcom Wireless and Dale Munro to create a system that will see a signal generated in Pincher Creek sent to Pincher Station then to the top of the mountain then to the base of the Red Chair where it will be broadcast into the entire base area. Pathcom will provide a licensed frequency so that the signal will be secure and reliable. Our beautiful mountains are great to look at but they create some big challenges with communication systems.

A propane distribution system will get rid of the numerous propane tanks that litter the base area. This will be great for fire safety and will help the aesthetic appearance of the base area. The entire base area was trenched so that an extensive system of pipe would access every building. One large tank by our sewage lagoons will be the main source of Propane in the base area. Fourty years of phone lines and power lines created many challenges while digging but thankfully Joe Montgomery loves the Caste so phones were not out for long. A special thanks goes out to Derrill Murphy and Gord Hamilton for their work with burying the pipe and hiding the scars from digging.

There are many other construction and restoration projects that have been or are being completed. A skier bridge was constructed to bring people back from the new mountain. This bridge was built with zero impact to the creek so that at no time was there any machinery or bridge materials in the water of the creek. Numerous culverts were installed on the new mountain so that drainage and run-off will not excessively erode the any part of the mountain. On the existing mountain, we painted both the Blue and Red Chairs. Also, the buildings at the top and bottom of the Blue Chair have been completely renovated.

In the spring we created a new logo that is a little more sleek and professional looking. We have tried to capture the outline of our beautiful mountains as part of this new design. Also, our web address has changed to www.skicastle.ca, which motivated us to do a major facelift on it. Our web designer Nancy Staniforth has updated our website with all new pictures and features that makes it one of the best looking and most people friendly resort websites around.