On Saturday, July 13, 2024, we summited The Fortress in Kananaskis, Alberta.
I climbed this one many years ago, on my 29th birthday, but Dan had never climbed it. I didn’t remember too much about the Fortress scramble route except that it seemed long but straightforward and a lot of fun.
This mountain has a distinct appearance from Highway 40. The top is kind of block-shaped with a flat top. Below the summit block are high cliff walls that seem un-climbable without ropes and a lot skill and courage. The scramble route goes around the back and is much less challenging.
For years, Dan and I have looked at this mountain as we drove down Highway 40 to ski, ice climb or hike. We decided that this year we should climb it.
Beta:
- This route is a loop, going up the Headwall Lakes valley to the col between The Fortress and Mount Chester. From the col, it ascends The Fortress and returns. Then it drops down the other side of the col and returns down the valley past Chester Lake.
- Parking: At Chester Lake Day Use area on the Spray Lakes Road / Smith Dorrien Trail.
- Elevation gain: about 1,150 meters
- Distance: about 18- 20 km for the entire loop
- Difficulty: Steep hiking off-trail over snow, scree, slab and loose rocks. Some route-finding getting onto the col from Headwall Lakes valley, assisted with occasional cairns.
- Gear: no special gear was needed at this time of year although I wished I had gaiters when I was in the deep, wet snow around the col and at the top of Chester Lake valley. Might have kept my feet dry.
Permit Required
A Kananaskis Conservation Pass is required to park at the trailhead.
Helpful Apps
- AllTrails: Headwall Lakes – The Fortress – Chester Lake
- FATMAP
Websites
These two summiters each chose a different approach for The Fortress. They both hiked up the Chester Lake valley instead of Headwall Lakes. Bob Spirko climbed The Fortress and then went up Gusty Peak. Steven Song climbed both Galatea and Gusty Peak before heading up The Fortress.
Books
- Scrambles In the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane
Trip Report
From the parking lot for Chester Lake Day Use area, the trail heads south along a snowshoe trail. This trail roughly parallels the road at first.
The trail is wide and easy to follow but there are a few different trails that intersect in this area.
The junctions have signs with the trail names. We checked the AllTrails app at each intersection to make sure we were on the most direct trail to access the Headwall Lakes valley.
A small rabbit is enjoying the morning sunshine on the trail ahead.
The trail rolls up and down a bit before dropping down to cross the creek. It then takes a wide sweeping switchback as it turns east.
To Headwall Lakes
Here the trail to Headwall Lakes leaves the snowshoe trail. A helpful arrow of rocks points the way.
This trail is more narrow. It roughly follows the creek up the valley.
As we hike up the creek, we start to get views up the valley. The Fortress is not yet in sight. It is hidden behind the shoulder of Mount Chester on the left side of the photo.
Here we get a better view of Mount Chester. The upper section is almost free of snow. The gully on the left with the long narrow strip of snow looks like it might work as an alternate ascent route. The regular ascent route for this mountain is from the other side of that col.
The trail crosses a large rock slide area. We kept looking up the valley for our first glimpse of The Fortress.
On the other side of the rock slide, the trail climbs steeply through the forest.
The trail continues up toward this big rock step. The trail takes you easily up the step with no scrambling challenges.
It looks like the waterfall on the left is emerging from the rock.
The top of The Fortress is finally visible in the distance. It looked like there was no snow on it.
Above the rock step we are now in the alpine. This valley just seems to get prettier.
Now we can see the top part of our ascent route on The Fortress in the distance. It looks like a wide, snow free ramp up the summit ridge to the tiny summit block.
The first Headwall Lake is beautiful. A waterfall flows down the far hillside into the lake.
More of our ascent route is visible ahead. Looking good.
This photo looks back at the first Headwall Lake. We have climbed the trail alongside the waterfall.
The trail is visible on the left side of the lake.
Before too long, we find the second Headwall Lake. Smaller but just as pretty. This lake still has some ice floating on it. On the right, we can see a lot of The Fortress scramble route but we still can’t see the route up to the col.
The Fortress Lower Slopes
Above the second lake, we follow the creek around a corner and finally get a good look at our entire route.
Initially when I saw this I was crestfallen. There was so much snow below the col, I thought it might not be safe to climb. I felt perhaps we had come too early in the season and we should have waited for more snow to melt.
But we decided to get closer and take a good look at our options. We stopped here to make a plan. Dan’s trekking pole is visible on the right as he is pointing at the slope while we pick out a possible ascent route.
The gully below the col is choked with snow and there is a large cornice along the low spot on the col. We wanted to avoid that. We felt that the right side, up the mostly snow free rib would probably be our best bet. A few places looked a bit steep but sometimes terrain looks a lot steeper than it really is when you are far away and looking at it straight on.
As we got closer, the route we had spotted looked even better.
We thought we could hike up the mostly snow-free rib on the right, cross left, onto the summit ridge above the snow patches and then head up the summit ridge.
We start up, sticking to the solid slab as much as possible.
Crossing an easy snow field. The snow was mostly supportive except at the edges.
Here above the snow patches, we will start to angle left and then curve around onto the summit ridge. There is a bit of a trail here.
The Summit Ridge
This is me coming up the summit ridge. Behind me in the valley is Chester Lake. In the distance, Burstall Pass is visible.
The col we plan to descend is below on the left side of the photo.
We picked up a trail on the summit ridge.
Far below, at the base of Gusty Peak, this small lake is incredibly bright blue. The photo just doesn’t capture the intensity of the colour.
Finally we are getting close to the summit block. The trail goes around on the left side to find the easiest way to the top.
A few scrambling moves are needed here. This was the only real scramble section on the Fortress scramble route.
It’s not too difficult, there are good handholds and foot placements. The rock is pretty solid by Rockies standards.
The Summit
On the summit we relax behind a wind break made of rocks. It’s nice to be out of the wind.
The views are fantastic. Here we see Mount Assiniboine in the distance. The near peak is Gusty Peak.
Descent to Chester Lake
Heading back down the summit ridge, we start to see the other side of the col, where we want to descend, has some snow-free areas. It looks like we will be able to safely get down this way.
It will be nice to hike through a different valley on the way out. I am also interested in seeing the regular ascent route up Mount Chester and this way, we’ll walk right by it.
Gusty Peak is another scramble in the Kane book that we would like to come back and climb. The ascent route goes from the bottom left up to the high point on the right but I’m not sure exactly what line it takes.
Getting down off the col was not too difficult. At the top, the snow was a bit too hard to walk on without crampons. We went down on loose rock and scree and then moved on to the snow where it softened up lower down.
At the bottom of the col we looked down the valley that we planned to descend. We still had a long way to go.
The snow we had to cross was mushy and wet.
Further down the valley, the walking was easier. We picked up a trail that followed the creek.
The trail brought us back down to the forest. Chester Lake is not too far ahead.
We emerged from the forest at the edge of the lake just in time to see this fine eagle swoop across the surface of the water. It might have been fishing. It would have been great to see it grab a fish out of the water but it didn’t catch anything while we were there.
Still I always feel grateful when I see one of these magnificent birds in the Rockies.
Across the meadows below the lake, we see the ascent route for Mount Chester. Still some snow but probably ready to go.
The trail down from the lake is well-travelled. It was easy to walk after all the different terrain we crossed but it still felt long. This was a big day.
It’s great to check another one off the list. Also we got some good recon for Gusty Peak and Mount Chester climbs. Hopefully we can come back this year to climb them.
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