After getting a later start than we had intended, we arrived at the Chester Lake parking lot. We walked along one of the many trails that lead toward Sawmill, and turned onto the Headwall Lakes trail.
We passed both lakes, which were frozen over, and then up the col toward The Fortress. Mick and Cheryl stayed at the col while Kevin and I tagged The Fortress.
The walk up The Fortress was windy, and we kept getting pelted with ice crystals. On the way back down, we radioed in, and Mick said he didn't want to go down the Chester side of the col, and was going to go back via the Headwall side on his own. No way, we radioed back, we'll all go back that way even though it adds at least an hour to the trip.
Sure enough, we got back to Mick's truck in the dark, but everyone was uninjured and happy that they had done the trip!
