Storming the Fortress

On Friday Tom & I thought we'd take advantage of the Stampede Parade keeping the crowds in town while we got the heck out. We originally opted to hike up to the Headwall Lakes, a 14km round-trip with only 430 m of elevation gain, with the possibility of tacking on the Fortress or popping over the ridge to come out on the Chester Lake trail. Instead, we ended up doing both, so hiking up the Headwall Creek canyon, climbing to the Fortress, and then out Chester Lake for a total hike of 20.8 km loop with 1115m of elevation gain, most of it at the Fortress.

I tried putting labels on the profile but for some reason every time I've tried to upload it the words are missing. The Headwall Lakes are after the first steep slope on the left ~7km, the sharp pointy part is the Fortress ~11km, and Chester Lake is on the right at ~17km.

The trail started off on wide cross-country ski trails rated blue and orange (which are the easiest here rather than the yellow and red equivalents back home in Ontario).

After about 45 minutes or so we took a small trail marked by a cairn and headed up the Headwall Creek trail.

Headwall Creek:

The forested trail shortly gave way to a rough bouldery trail marked by small cairns (rock piles).

Once again we hit snow, pretty minor at first...

But then more snow... and by the end of the trek my ankles were a bit chilly from having snow packed around them and my socks were a bit soggy.

Lower Headwall Lake - that's ice on the lake in the foreground.

Tom checking out the cut-throat trout in the Lower Headwall Lake:

View down the valley from the top of Headwall Lake. At this point the creek was gushing out of the ground. A combination of thick scree and karsting of the limestone means that the creeks run underground for a while.

Upper Headwall Lake:

Some crinoids on a boulder - centimetre scale at the bottom. Tom laughed at me because I had my scale card stashed in camera case. With preservation this good I wish I could poke around the bed this came from to see if there was a calyx to go with it.

First view of the Fortress:

Entering the sub-alpine valley above Headwall Lakes with Headwall Creek running through it.

The steep snow-covered slope leading up to the ridge separating Chester Canyon from Headwall Canyon, with the trail going up to the Fortress starting from the ridge-crest.

On the trail up to the Fortress looking back at the ridge-crest...

We found a geocache at the top of the Fortress!

This is the view from the Fortress looking back to Headwall Canyon.

The view slightly to the right of the last, looking towards Chester Lake.

360 degree panorama from the top of the Fortress:

The scree trail leading to the Fortress:

The scree slope leading from the ridge-crest down to Chester Lake. Just below this we hit deep snow. It was so steep we decided not to toboggan down it, but it was a pretty good, although precarious at times, boot-ski.

Finally off the rubble trail, looking back to the Fortress. Chester Lake - the wild-flowers were amazing!

The well-groomed gravel trail that leads from Chester Lake to the parking lot. This part of the trail is rated easy.

In the end it took us just over 5 hours of moving time, more like 7 total though once snack time, photo-ops, and lounging around various lakes and the top of the Fortress were taken into account. Made for another sweet summer day though! Needless to say, we decided to take it easy today...