Fortress Ridge is a short, delightful ridge walk. We didn't understand the instructions for the start of the trip. I don't ski and neither Dinah nor I have been to Fortress Ski Hill before so we were at a loss as to where the "upper terminal of Farside double chair" was. But after climbing up the ridge above the parking lot we spotted the first summit, "Baldy," and headed towards it. It meant losing the 100 m we had gained from the parking lot!

Once on the first summit, (Gillean Daffern calls the four high points "summits") the hike unfolds as in the book. There appears to be a trail at least some of the way, although we couldn't be sure since we spent much of the time hiking on snow. The scrambling at the col before the fourth summit is indeed easy.

We gained only 364 m and not the 550 m that the book states, although the elevation lost and regained probably accounts for the difference. We were surprised too that the high point is the first summit (2365 m) and not the fourth summit (2333 m).

On the return we opted not to ascend back up the first summit and instead skirted below it.

MOVIE (1:45)