A nice short half-day hike with one easy staircase-style scramble section about 500 meters from the trailhead. The rest of the trail goes around the peak to the col connecting Grizzly and Evan-Thomas, and then straight to the summit. Once I got there, I was out of weather luck, and the view of nearby mountains Evan Thomas and Packenham was a bit cloudy, but still exceptional: It make sense to walk from the summit all the way to the Opal […]
This is definitely an undervalued route. It’s steep from the very beginning, and that is good because you don’t have to warm yourself up for several kilometers through a boring forest just to get to the fun stuff. There are a few scrambling sites, and by scrambling I mean hanging the hiking poles on one arm and using teeth and both hands to pull up. Some sections have loose rocks, and one might say even “exposure”, but nothing too scary […]
There are two approaches to Fortress – via Chester Lake or via Headwall Lakes. Both lead to the col between Mount Chester and The Fortress from different sides, and then you hike up the southwest ridge all the way to the summit. There are multiple routes on the ridge but they all end up on the left side of the summit block where there is an easy scramble up to the top. If you see there a path with exposure, […]