Turquoise Peak — Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

The weather is going to get rough for quite a while, so was fortunate to get out on a bluebird Tuesday with Kidz Won't Hike and Aferrenberg to go after Turquoise Peak. This was definitely a mini mountaineering adventure, with steep runout snow slopes to climb and a section of class 3 to gain the summit that was a mix of snow and rock scrambling. 

Started at the West Fork Foss Lakes TH off Hwy 2. Road in has some decent sized potholes, but is in OK shape otherwise. Any car can make it. There was one sedan when we arrived at 8am. Restrooms are clean and open. 

The hike starts with 3.5 miles on a good trail that goes up to Lake Malachite and Copper Lake. Before descending to the lakes, right before crossing a bridge, we set off uphill to the right. From here it was all off trail travel and route finding. The first section is very steep bushwhacking through a forest. Somehow we made it up here without putting on our microspikes, which we used on the descent. Once we topped out near a still frozen tarn, things started to open up. We ran into 3-4 cairns here that marked the way, but they disappeared quickly. The next obstacle was a boulder field. As we got up higher, at around 5000' elevation, the snow became more consistent and we put on microspikes. In shaded areas it was very firm crust and oftentimes we didn't even break through, even though there was only 4" of snow. Kidz expertly led us up various gullies and boulder fields to get up to the final ridge before the peak. Once on the ridge, Turquoise majestically came into view. We had to skirt around a cliff and drop down slightly to start a traverse on the north side of the peak. The snow was rock hard on the north side. There are many cliffs on this peak which we had to navigate around. We took a route angling up across the north side to get to the northwest ridge and then we followed that up for a bit. But we knew it was class 5 to get to the top this way, so we started heading back southeast sidehilling on steep firm snow to join up with the northeast ridge for the final push to the summit. Snow was softer here, we stashed our packs and grabbed an ice axe and started up the class 3 scramble. We stayed on a line that mostly avoided exposure and leveraged trees as aid. There were a couple class 3 proper moves, but other than that it was reasonable climbing, just had to test the snow steps to make sure they were secure. Summit achieved! It was a long hike out but we made it well before dark, which was the goal. 

Stats: 10.3 miles, 4,700' gain, 9:30 total time, 2:00 stop time

Gear: Gaiters, Waterproof hiking boots (TX4s), Poles, Ice Axe, Microspikes. Gaiters worn the whole time. Feet still got wet with all the snow travel, changed socks on the way down. Spikes are a necessity for this one. Used ice axe to self belay on the descent on the north side of Turquoise, not sure if I could have self arrested on the firm snow. 

Water: Several sources all the way until about 4500'. We didn't use them.