Turner Peak

Route: From 306 Turnout
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: ncxhjhgvbi
Info: Wanted to get some solitude so chose to use the turnout Supra used in their report. Route was obvious; I probably stayed higher than I should have initially which lead to some side hilling but nothing was too annoying. Some snowfields coming out of treeline but I picked my way through relatively easily. One snowfield on the final approach but the ridge is wider than it looks. Full summer! 

Route: From Hartenstein Lake
Posted On: 3/29/2025, By: Will_E
Info: Nice day on Turner, I started at Denny Creek TH. No snowshoes needed until the turnoff for Brown's Pass, in the morning the snow wasn't bad until the descent to Hartenstein Lake, ran into a guy that turned back there (Randy). From the lake on the snow got better, gaining the ridge wasn't difficult. Left snowshoes just below the ridge, no traction needed from there to summit. On the way back the snow was good until after the lake, lots of fantastic postholing from there until getting back to the Yale turnoff. 

Route: Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: daway8
Info: Started from Cottonwood Pass and realized this starts out on the Continental Divide trail, which was easy to follow at first but became lost in intermittent fields of snow. Only one substantive snowfield, which was coming down off 12,581 down to the lowpoint between that and the 12er next to Turner. Most other snow avoidable or inconsequential. That one field though is borderline avy risk based on angle but was pretty firmly consolidated overall so I deemed it acceptable to cross - but note there was a semi-recent looking slide just south of there triggered by cornice fall. Got a glissade on the way down on very firm snow. Coming up from the base there's one tiny little class 3 section that I did for fun plus to avoid the loose class 2 choss that seems to be the standard way of going up judging by the worn path. On far side of Turner Peak there are some cliff bands that might make fun summer scrambling but currently hold steep snow fields at their base so that was too sketch to play on today. Will add photos of nearby peaks. 

Route: from Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: mijoflynn
Info: Needed a short hike today, and satellite showed surprisingly thin snow cover on Turner, so I grabbed the dog and drove up to Cottonwood Pass. There is indeed no significant snow on the ridge to LiDAR 12,585 (pic 1), and there is indeed just spotty snow on the west face of Turner (pic 2). However, there's plenty of deep snow on the east ridge of 12,585, and it was soft even at 7:00 am. I started postholing up to my hip, and then the dog postholed over her head and started panicking, so I had to call it before getting down to the saddle. The dog collected herself on the way back to Cottonwood Pass, so we climbed south to LiDAR 12,598. That's all snow, plenty firm for snowshoes, and has clearly seen a lot of skiing in the last week (pic 3). Fabulous views of snow-capped Collegiates from both 12ers (pic 4). 

Route: North Face via Denny Creek
Posted On: 2/29/2024, By: Camden7
Info: Lovely and sunny day, high of about 10 up top. Started at 8:30 am and skinned all the way to the summit. Unusual for February! Enjoyed 3,500 ft of turns. Above treeline was totally wind blasted but great powder in the trees. Had some pretty alarming shooting cracks on one small face around 11,800 ft. Cottonwood Pass is open to Denny Creek Trailhead and snow is continuous immediately from the road. Beautiful area. 

Route: Switchback well below Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 10/8/2023, By: mikemalick
Info: I started from a switchback around 11,147. Zero snow anywhere along my route. First pic is while heading up from my route. Second pic is looking towards Cottonwood Pass from Turner summit. Snow doesn't look like it would be a problem there as well. 

Route: from Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 7/16/2023, By: DixieFlyer
Info: There is a snowfield below Peak 12581 on the ridgeline going into the valley below, but the snow can be avoided. The soles of my shoes never touched snow on the hike. 

Route: Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 6/26/2023, By: mjlucarelli
Info: Pretty much summer conditions on this route/peak. All snow fields are avoidable until you reach the low point between PT 12,581 and Turner. I was able to cross all snow without traction or poles but I got a late start so the snow was fairly soft. If it had been firmer spikes/poles would suffice. Snow free the rest of the way to the summit. 

Route: Cottonwood pass
Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: VeraUndertow
Info: With the weather throwing a wrench in my original plans to snow climb something today in the CB area, I figured I could tag the almost completely dry Turner peak on my way back over cottonwood pass. The only snow field of consequence was coming off 12,581 heading toward the saddle with Turner. I brought my whippet in case I needed to self arrest but micro spikes would work fine as well. Other than the snow it was pretty uneventful, tho the rocks were slippery for the top 350 feet which took a little extra caution thanks to all the rain. 1:20 to the summit, 2:35 round trip. 

Route: Northeast slopes
Posted On: 2/25/2023, By: Geckser
Info: We (Arthurspiderman, Ivar and I) were treated to a beautiful day with good snow conditions on Turner. We were inspired to do this trip by PostHolePete, and we followed a similar route up from Denny Lake to the summit. This is a great and fairly safe winter route, I was very happy with the trench to the turn off for Brown's Pass at which point we cut our own tracks to the lake. From the lake we took a wooded rib to the large bench on the North of the mountain from which we skinned to the ridge and booted to the summit. There was very little wind all day, even on the ridge. We were able to skin continuously from the car to 12,600 feet at which point we hit the ridge. The ridge itself was somewhat unpleasant but was fairly short so it did not cause too many problems. We descended the way we came up and were treated to some nice turns in the trees and some fun trail skiing. It was a really great day with awesome company. 

Route: Denny Creek
Posted On: 2/19/2023, By: Posthole Pete
Info: Beautiful day but oh boy, that was some wind. Took the safe route up the backside, from the lake. Skinned 90% of the way. Wind sucked once the boards were on my back but successful sand on the face while on the summit. Dropped into the SE side and snow felt great. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/30/2022, By: mtngoatwithstyle
Info: Summer conditions all the way to Summit. D_Baker and I missed a well established trail in the forest that takes you to the beginning of the SW ridge and ended up hiking the Osbourne Creek drainage and from there hiking up the E saddle& ridge of Turner ,which was great too. On the way back once down from the ridge we did find the trail in the forest and it took us all the way back to the cars. Summit register dates back to 1998 and a Jade Dragon protects the mtn. Awesome day!. 

Route: From Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 6/10/2022, By: HikerGuy
Info: No change from 6/2 condition report. There are a few snowfields on the north side of 12,581 that you cannot avoid. 

Route: West ridge from Cottonwood Pass
Posted On: 6/2/2022, By: xcrunner365
Info: This route is 95% dry, with only a few snowfields on the east ridge of pt. 12,581 that you cannot avoid. 

Route: From Denny Creek
Posted On: 4/9/2022, By: yaktoleft13
Info: Trail to Hartenstein Lake is 99% snow-covered. Booted till the second trail split (the one after the Yale split), then wore snowshoes until I reached the upper bench below the saddle. Easy to rock-hop up and around the unranked 12er, other than a few short snow sections (one of which was a hard slab). The last push to the summit can be largely talus-hopped. was able to price together at least 600 vert of glissades on the way down. Wore snowshoes from the end of the glissades until I hit the Yale split again. One gps read 9.3 mi, the usually more accurate one read 9.9. Fun, quick route