"Started from Chester Lake parking lot, and headed up to Headwall Lakes. For Fortress South, we opted to to avoid loosing elevation by sidehilling the talus on the east side of the valley. I recommend taking the proper trail on the valley floor. This would have been faster in the long run. The trail is intermittent and steep and loose. However, not difficult. Just grind it out. Once we gained the ridge, it was a straight forward walk with some great views. We dropped back into the valley and took the main route up to Fortress. This was an easy ascent, just stick to the trail. There’s a little scrambling to gain the summit block. After having lunch on The Fortress, we made a quick descent to the Chester Lake valley. We filled our water and headed up to Gusty Peak. The main route was snowbound. We considered crossing the snow, but a mistake would either send you crashing into rock, or fling you over a cliff. We didn’t have micro spikes and the snow was slush in some spots. This condition, pushed us up higher to get around the snow patches. We ended up scrambling on loose rock and slab to gain the ridge for the last 200m. We then needed to traverse the super exposed ridge ..." — ivo • Aug 6, 2022

"Ski ascent in the definition of a perfect spring day. Straight forward route, skiing would have been possible to witching 50m of summit if it had better snow coverage. Highly recommend an early start, we summited at 8:45 and some of the surrounding peaks started releasing around 10am" — RockyMountainGoats • Apr 24, 2022

"When you can sit comfortably at the summit for an hour in shorts and a tank top it's truly a treat! The Fortress via Headwall Lakes yesterday in the heat. A bit of snow on route but nothing problematic. This valley is incredible!" — hollywilliams • Jun 26, 2021

"a long day going up the Fortress, and an unnamed outlier to the SE. Given there was a bear closure at Chester lake, Headwalls Lake valley it was! A beautiful hike in the the lakes. We went up the rocky rib to climber's right to avoid the snow and being under the large cornices at the Chester-Fortress col. We glissaded down on snow for a fast and fun descent. We then cut across to the SE, and headed up to the SE outlier by first reaching a col and then walking North along the ridge to the summit. All in all made for a long day with 21.2 km, and 1750 m of elevation gain." — apfelstrudel • Jul 11, 2020

"Unfortunately I lost all the original picture files for this trip and the ones I salvaged from facebook are too small to upload here :( . LOVED this mountain. We did it as a loop. We started by going up to Chester lake. Onwards and upwards to the Col for Fortress. Summited Fortress with amazing views despite the smoke. Then we descended down the other side of the col through the Headwall lakes. We followed this around back to our vehicle. We didnt have GPS navigation at the time so we got lost after the last lake. But Im sure with adequate GPS navigation this route would be much easier haha. But the headwall lakes were amazing and certainly a hike I wont forget. " — Slogenstein • Aug 12, 2017

"Great 2 Kane peak day. Went up the steps in the snow from a few early morning parties and summitted this nice one in the sun. Looking back at Gusty which we had just ascended looked crazy steep but it wasn't." — alexjoseph • Sep 24, 2016

"Cold on the summit at 1c and blowing a gale. Decent snow on approach also. A good day despite the weather. Went a little too directly for the summit and should have aimed for the col before ascending. Took the headwell lakes approach and returned via chester lake and elephant rocks. I'd recommend this loop as there is scree on the way to the northern valley. Elephant rocks are fun to scramble on of you have the energy left. Long day at 20km" — MarkJPerkins • Sep 10, 2016

"Went with my usual hiking club, the calgary out door club. It was forecast for 18C when I looked the night before. Started out okay but nearing the base, where we ascended to the col it was very windy and cold! Gray skies too. From the col to the summit is very steep and takes alot of effort. The temp was 0C at the top and with the wind--in the negative. My light jacket wasn't great and my hands were cold! Great views though. Don't regret it for a minute." — mike.buenting.7 • Sep 2, 2012