Fortress Mtn, Kananaskis Country, Alberta	August 2004
This scramble starts at the Chester Lake parking lot.  Traverse around Mt. Chester counterclockwise on the hiking trails.  At the first stream crossing on a bridge, take the logging road to the right and then after about 400 m a single track trail starts off to the left.  This trail winds through dense forest and up a stream bed until it climbs fairly steeply to the lake shown in the picture.  Many will stay at this idyllic location, have lunch and return.  Mt. Chester is on the left, out of sight in this photo.  Fortress Mtn lies at the end of the valley.  The route takes the left skyline of the summit in the far distance.
Looking back down the valley towards the west.  The stream emerges from a spring at this point.
After the lake, and climbing the slope beside the waterfall, there is another small lake then a hike through a wet flat bottomed valley. Springs emerging from the side of the valley make for swampy terrain.  At the end of this valley, a scree slope leads to a col between an outlier of Mt. Chester and Fortress Mtn.  Avoid the scree where possible and climb rock ribs protruding from the scree.  From the col, climb the scree slope towards Fortress Mtn. The photo shows the nature of the terrain and the view back down towards the meadows at Chester Lake.  Nearing the top, there are a couple of narrow spots where nervous types might pause, but there is no fall distance.  A slip would result in scratches.  Nonetheless, the dizzying drops on either side, and loose scree on the slabs is a little disconcerting.  Near the top, the trail is very prominent where it traverses left.  Just before the trail disappears into thin air, climb several large blocks of rock to reach the summit plateau, which is broad and only at a slight incline.
Looking back towards Mt. Chester from near the top.
The top is safe and flat.  This photo is looking east.
Just behind Carolyn in the previous photo is a 1000 m drop to the lake below.  Several outliers of the summit block form nesting places for ravens that soar around these mountains.  As we arrived, two ravens flew from their crags and floated gently over these cliffs.
View from the col between Mt. Chester and Fortress Mtn.  This scree starts as black shale.  It's fairly steep and convex at the top so it looks like the descent is going to be tough.  And it is tough if it is wet, snowy or icy.  Lower down the shale changes to yellow limestone fragments and then the base of the valley is very rocky.  This valley is the only really unpleasant part of the hike.  It's felsenmeer - a sea of rocks.  Sink holes break the monotony.  Eventually, you emerge into the meadows of Chester Lake.  There we met a grizzly that guarded the stream that drains the lake.  We backed off and passed the bear through trees to the west, trying to keep it in sight.   It showed no interest in us. This is not a short hike.  Probably around 8 hours, and we ran out the last bit.