Turret Peak

Route: Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/12/2025, By: Sbenfield
Info: Summer conditions. No need for axe or microspikes. 

Route: from ruby basin
Posted On: 7/8/2025, By: Laxer04
Info: summer conditions. all snow is avoidable. ruby basin trail is in rough shape - give yourself extra time for route finding, climbing under and over downed trees and navigating through willows if anyone lost an axe in ruby basin (found in the willows), hit me up on here and i will get it back to you 

Route: Purgatory to N Pigeon Creek
Posted On: 7/3/2025, By: dcsheldon
Info: On Sunday June 29 we hiked from Purgatory to the Aspen meadow north of Needleton that provides access to the N Pigeon trail. We camped at the meadow. Mosquitos were plentiful all the way from Purgatory to the meadow. On Monday June 30 we hiked up North Pigeon "trail" to the basin below Pigeon Peak. Getting to the basin below Pigeon with camping gear is difficult as described in other reports and books. Continous steep climbing on not well defined trail. Paying attention to elevation and direction hopefully resulted in us not adding additional distance trying to find a proper route. Mosquitos all the way up N Pigeon to the basin. Monday was a clear day and after setting up tents in the basin we continued on to Turret. All snow was avoidable and the hike was straightforward and a fun hike. Views were great. 

Route: Via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: Dan_Suitor
Info: The approach was dry, but there was deadfall on deadfall. I was up to Ruby Basin 2 years ago, and it has gotten worse. The old deadfall has not been cleared, and there is a bunch of new deadfall. It made it slow going, with a lot of route-finding. Ruby Basin was beautiful. The willows on the approach were thick. The marmots were a bit aggressive, so we hung our food and packs. I’m certain they would have gone after it had we not. The hike up to Turret could be made snow-free. But it required going through some nasty boulder fields, which we did on the way up. Getting to the ridgeline on Turret took a bit of looking around. We set up some cairns to help others in the future. Descending, we went around the snow to the right. This allowed us to avoid the boulders. However, this forced us to traverse some snow fields. I which I had brought my gaiters. 

Route: Standard route from Ruby Basin
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: bdloftin77
Info: The Ruby Basin valley is dry. There's some snow as you climb from the valley to Turret's saddle, but mostly avoidable with only a few crossings if desired. From near the saddle to the top, you can find a fairly dry route over rocks. Snow conditions varied - some areas were relatively solid while other areas we post holed waist-deep. 

Route: From Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/16/2024, By: Codyhill1991
Info: I had been a little worried about the Ruby Creek trail leading up to this endeavor so figured I'd post a little update - It's pretty much the most unpleasant thing I've done in recent memory, but I did expect as much. Hiked in from Purgatory Flats which was my first mistake. Next time, train. From Needleton you hike a little ways on a trail with private property on either side until you come to a clearing where you can easily lose the trail. There is a slight use trail going off to the left (continuing parallel to the river) and this is not the one you want. Look to the right and into the woods. There were two Aspen trees in this area at the edge of the meadow with "R -->" and "Ruby -->" carved into them, which, hate that from a Leave No Trace perspective but since they're there you may as well look for them. There was also a long tree limb on the ground, 10 ft or so long, pointing the right direction. It looked purposefully placed. A quick note: from all the Trip reports I read, I expected the Columbine tree to be in this area and couldn't find it. It's actually much further up the trail. I was trying to use it as a marker to get on the trail at the right spot from the bottom, I would say it's probably almost a mile up. That's a rough guess but I remember looking up randomly and being surprised to see it that far along. Once you pick up the trail at this point after the meadow it is very obvious, though hellishly steep, for a mile or so. After that it's still steep, maybe less so, but the nightmare becomes the deadfall. Wear pants - I did not and my legs are absolutely brutalized. A gpx is helpful. There is a defined Trail the whole way, but you need to get off it at certain points to manage all of the downed trees, and in places it can be hard to pick it back up again. I think you could reasonably do it without a GPX track, but I had one and it was super helpful in two or three spots as a time saver. I was in a state of pretty significant exasperation at this point. Once you get to the lake I found it easiest to cross the spot between the small lower pond and the actual lake and make your way up on the left side of the lake. Terrain is straightforward from here and tough but less miserable. Personally, I would take 3 days to do this again in the future. Two if taking the train - but being out there for only one night coming from Purgatory made this a less enjoyable trip than it could have been. I swore off hiking a few times on the Ruby Basin trail but now that I've let 24 hour pass I think I'll return someday better prepared mentally. It was lovely up there. Colors have changed on the ground and the aspens are just starting. 

Route: Standard from N Pigeon
Posted On: 7/31/2024, By: eskermo
Info: Completely dry, nothing really changed from the previous report. There was a nice trail from the 12,400'ish level below the Pigeon slabs you use to traverse over to Turret. When this peters out, we busted up the most solid ground we could following occassional trail segments to the 12,780' saddle. Easy going from there. Register is in tattered and wet but still serviceable. See my Pigeon CR for more details on approach and camping. 

Route: Standard West Scramble to North Side
Posted On: 7/7/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: Coming from Pigeon Peak we stayed on grass a little longer instead of returning to the Pigeon/Turret saddle itself. From there the route is obvious. We scrambled up the boulders to reach the base of Turret's impressive summit block, then up a Class 2+ buttcrack-like cleft to the north ridge. The scramble was only like 30 feet, though fun. From there a trail through the scree leads to the summit. We descended the same way back to below the scramble then took scree and grass north instead of going back to the saddle, then returned to camp. The descent from Ruby Basin is truly horrendous. There's some semblance of a trail through the seven foot tall willows choking the whole basin, and the trail eventually winds down the steep slopes north of the creek. Small cairns are helpful but overall this section of trail sucks and would be very scary if wet - lots of dangerous drop offs, some mud, some scrambling, steep pulling on trees and willows, difficult route finding, etc. Not fun getting to the lake. A trail then traverses the north side of the lake and leads to the main trail, which is a little better but still hard to follow due to thick deadfall. Stay on it as best as possible. A GPX track was VERY helpful. We didn't even go up this approach and it still sucked since it's very steep, covered in downed trees, and is overall a bit hard to follow. Once it joins with the Tie Creek trail it does improve, but I can't imagine how much it would suck to climb up. May god have mercy on your soul if you do. 

Route: from Pigeon
Posted On: 9/6/2022, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: Excellent conditions as of Labor Day. Route from Pigeon is in good shape. 

Route: Tie creek
Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: Summer conditions. Via NY Basin camp after heading down NW ridge of North Eolus. Beautiful views. Black flies are out in full force. Better than skeeters though. 

Route: From Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/18/2021, By: yaktoleft13
Info: A couple of fresh fallen trees on the Ruby Basin trail add to the difficulty of the last few miles. No snow. All routes up the peaks in the area visible from the summit are snow free 

Route: Ruby Basin
Posted On: 8/28/2020, By: dwoodward13
Info: Purgatory->CB->Twin Thumbs Pass->Ruby Basin->Purgatory Route up to Twin Thumbs Pass is straightforward. There are two “low” spots of the pass on the side of two towers. I took the climbers right most one which went fine. Maybe 50 feet of Class 3 descending on the north side, all dry. I just crab walked down it, as it's steep dirt with rocks and awkward with a big pack. Route over to the Ruby Basin Pass from there is easy enough. There's a goat path from from the Ruby Pass down to the meadow at 11.6k. I didn't find a trail up the steep grassy section, but once in the rock glacier on the way to Pigeon-Turret saddle it's well marked. Be ready for the mental hit of descending all the way to like 12.2k. On the upper reaches of Pigeon there seem to be two dueling set of cairns. I took the left most ones and had one or two Class 4 moves, so not sure if I was off route or not. Reversing back to Turret is straightforward and Class 2. The trail down to Needleton is rough, easy to lose, but it is there. Took me nearly an equal amount of time to descend from Ruby Lake to Needleton (3 miles), as it did from Needleton to Purg (10 miles). Highly recommend HikerGuys TR. 

Route: Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/4/2019, By: angry
Info: Via twin thumbs pass down to ruby. Some snow on the approach, then dry all the way to the summit. 

Route: NW Slopes
Posted On: 5/27/2018, By: mrickers
Info: NW Slopes route from N Pigeon Creek is summer conditions. Snow is 99% avoidable, no snow gear needed. Did a very short class 3 variation to avoid snow on the final bit to the summit, solid and fun. Pigeon probably has a little snow on the upper part of the mountain, but it'll be gone soon I'd think. Photo #1: Approach to the saddle below Pigeon Photo #2: Turret from the saddle Photo #3: Pigeon 

Route: Standard
Posted On: 7/24/2015, By: illusion7il
Info: All Clear