Nacho and I climbed Castle Peak together for the first time nearly 4 years ago. He had been asking me to take him camping in the snow and had been saying he wanted to climb a mountain (Mt Shasta! no less). To get him started I decided to take him to Castle Peak and climb it in two days.
I have to admit that back then I had very little experience camping in the winter, but had done it enough times to feel confident taking him along. That said, I didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t have any specialized winter equipment, just our 3 season tent and regular camping gear, we even had to rent our snowshoes! Thankfully winters in California are fairly mild and weather forecasts are pretty accurate, so it was easy to pick a day with good weather and warm temperatures.
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