I was inspired by a hikeart video from about a week ago to check out DeRoux Peak, which I had never been to before. Our group of three set out at about 9:00 from the DeRoux Trailhead #1392, and completed the trip in about 6.5 hours. Total distance was about 11.5 miles, and approximately 3000' of elevation gain.
If you want to hike this area, I'd recommend doing it soon! One big storm and the road will be closed for the season.
ROAD / TRAILHEAD: The road is snow-free all the way to the trailhead. There are some potholes, but they are minor and pretty infrequent. The bathrooms are open at DeRoux campground near the trailhead. There were no other cars when we arrived or on our return.
As you are driving in, it is striking to see the difference between the Labor Mountain Fire scars on the east side of the road, and the untouched vegetation on the west side. Note that some of the spur roads heading east off FS 9737 are closed if they are in the fire zone.
One other note - new to us, there is a winter camp set up at the DeRoux campground with two large huts, a sauna, and a big container building full of firewood. Apparently this can be rented out for backcountry winter adventures, see Fortune Peak Huts for info.
BOULDER / DEROUX TRAIL #1392: We hiked on this trail up to the junction with the DeRoux Spur #1392.1. No snow on this section, but a few places with mud or water over the trail. Waterproof boots helpful but you could probably get by without them. There are five blowdowns in this part of the trail, not too hard to get over.
DEROUX SPUR TRAIL #1392.1: This spur trail climbs over a ridge between trail #1391 (Boulder DeRoux) and #1393 (Middle Fork Teanaway). We hiked the entire length of it. It has very nicely-built, low-grade switchbacks the entire way, so it's easy on the knees but takes a while to get up and down. Great views as you ascend to the saddle between DeRoux Peak and Koppen Mountain, and superb views up on top. There is one small section of snow just before you reach the saddle, about 50' long. The trail is in great shape with very little mud or water, though it's slightly brushy on the descent down the other side to the Middle Fork Teanaway. There are three blowdowns on this spur trail, all pretty easy to get around or over.
DEROUX EAST RIDGE: Our initial plan was to ascend to DeRoux Peak via the east ridge from the DeRoux/Koppen saddle - this is the shortest and most direct route from the car. However, we hiked just about 5 minutes up this ridge and came upon a sign that seemed to claim this ridge route was "off limits" to preserve sensitive wildlife habitat. We had our doubts about whether this sign was official, since it had no attribution of who posted it. In addition, there was a misspelling, and some suspicious grammar choices that I've never seen on a Forest Service sign. Anyway, we chose to "obey" the sign and take the longer route via the Middle Fork Teanaway Trail both directions. I later discovered an earlier trip report showing that this is NOT an official Forest Service sign, and the FS has no problem with people taking the ridge route. For what it's worth, the ridge route looked to be mostly free of snow.
MIDDLE FORK TEANAWAY TRAIL #1393: We followed this trail from where the DeRoux Spur meets it, up through the basin to the saddle on the SW ridge of DeRoux Peak. This is generally a nice easy trail, but there was water running down the trail in many places. I'd highly recommend waterproof boots if you are hiking this section. Only two blowdowns that were not a problem. We encountered snow about halfway up the basin from the DeRoux Spur, and it was pretty much continuous until right before the next saddle at the top of the trail. Depth of the snow was a few inches, up to maybe a foot at most, but on this very cold day (temps only around freezing), it was quite firm. Be sure to have a map and/or GPS if you venture out here in the snow, as it's not always obvious where the trail is. Having said that, none of us had been on this trail before, and we didn't find it too hard to figure out where it went, since we knew it was going to end up at the far saddle eventually. There were zero human tracks in the snow along our route, but there should be some there now! We did spot fresh bear tracks in several places along with a few smaller animal tracks.
DEROUX SW RIDGE: From the saddle SW of DeRoux Peak, we first started out on the trail signed Elsnor Mine Trail #1392.8. This turned out to be less than optimal, since it immediately went downhill on the other side, and we just had to climb back up to the ridge on some fairly steep and somewhat brushy terrain. The better route, which we used on the way back, is to leave the trail just before you reach the saddle and head uphill. Then stay on the southeast side of the ridge most of the way, with one minor detour to the northwest side around a small rock outcropping. The bottom third of the ridge is pretty much snow-free, but above that there is solid snow up to the flat summit basin. It's not deep, not extremely steep, but you'll likely want some kind of traction here in case the snow is firm. Spikes worked great for us.
The summit itself is bare rock, with the aforementioned basin area having some nice tree and terrain protection from the weather. The wind was howling at the top, and with the temperature being about 30 degrees, we did not stay up there for long! Views were great over to Hawkins Mountain, Esmeralda, and Davis. We could really see Stuart or anything else distant due to cloud cover. The basin was a great spot for lunch among some cool snow-flocked trees.
GEAR: We wore gaiters the whole way, though that was more for warmth - not really needed for snow depth or mud. We didn't put on our spikes until about halfway upon the DeRoux SW ridge. On the way down, though, we wore the spikes all the way back from the DeRoux summit down into the basin until the snow ran out. This was a big help in making the downhill go pretty quick. We had snowshoes in the car but elected not to bring them. This turned out to the be right call, since they would have been overkill with the cold firm snow. On a warmer day, they might be more useful in the upper Middle Fork basin.
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