[awilsondc]

Turret has intrigued me ever since I saw a trip report on it a few years ago. As the weekend approached with a stellar weather forecast, my mind began to wander with possibilities for a day hike on Saturday, and Turret was towards the top of the list. As fate would have it I got an invite for a Turret summit from Ozzy and Bryan on Friday night. My schedule was free so I eagerly accepted the invite! We met at the fully melted out Upper Big Quilcene Trailhead around 4:30 in the morning, and by 4:45 we were on the trail. The first three miles of the trail were pretty easy. The nice gentle grade of the trail was a good way to warm up, and the miles went easy. There was no snow for quite awhile, barely even a patch, until abruptly around 3700 ft the trail became under thick continuous snow. A short while later, when the trail begins to gain elevation around 3800 ft, we stopped for our first break. After the break we put on gaiters and snowshoes and took off into the brush. The brush was mild and a non issue. We crossed the creek on a log (many opportunities, easy to cross) and headed southwest along the south edge of the creek. We had to navigate around and cross many logs as we hiked a mile up the river, but it wasn't that bad. Soon we began to gain elevation as we hiked up the ridge NW of Turret. Almost as soon as we started uphill the snow coverage became thin to nonexistent, so we stopped to take our snowshoes off. We made a rising traverse along the ridge for around 700 vertical feet until we neared a broad gully. Views back towards Buckhorn were looking good and Minaret soaked up the sun as it slowly became bathed in light. It was a bluebird day, we were in the high country, and stoke was high! What a beautiful morning to be alive! As we emerged into the gully the snow got deeper so we stopped to put our snowshoes back on before we started up the broad gully.

Big Quilcene River

First light on Minaret

Minaret

Broad Gully, Buckhorn behind

Steep gully

Looking down steep gully

The snow had a mostly supportive frozen crust which made travel easy. That is, until we had to traverse over a ridge to the right (southwest) which sucked side hilling. After traversing, we had a long, steep gully to climb to gain access to the the west slopes of Turret which would lead us to the summit. It was steep, but still ok for snowshoes. Eventually we reached the top of the gully and crested the ridge where views of Minaret and the Constance group came into view. Saweeeeet! What a sick group of peaks! The spread of Constance, Inner Constance, Warrior, and Cloudy were some serious eye candy and was the main attraction for me this whole trip. I think this is my new favorite view point for Constance. It looks seriously impressive from this side! After we gathered the group at the top of the gully we began the final 700 ft climb to the summit.

Minaret and Buckhorn

Steep west slope of Turret

Ozzy, getting after it

Constance to Cloudy

Summit in sight

It started out steep, and got even steeper! I decided to stop and put on crampons, which didn't make things any easier but felt more secure. Ozzy and Bryan continued on in snowshoes until they had to take them off and boot it the rest of the way up. The boys headed up to the false summit which they said sucked, while I traversed under it to the left. It got steep, but it was secure enough with the snow conditions. We met up at the saddle and soon we were on the summit! It had taken us just shy of 5 hours to get to the top. Views were so good! Of course the Constance group was the big eye catcher, but Buckhorn and the Deception area looked great and we could see all five Washington volcanoes along with many other peaks. We hung out on the summit, filling our bellies and soaking in the views for over 2 hours before packing up to head down. What a place to be on such a beautiful day, we didn't want to leave! Eventually we shouldered our packs and started the descent.

Bryan and Constance

Summit area panorama

Clouds and Glacier Peak

Constance and Inner Constance

The Brothers

Constance

Cunningham Pass, Destroyer on the left

Ozzy

The snow had really softened up, but was still fairly crusty. Some spots we could find a nice secure plunge step, and other spots being too heavy with your foot placement led to post holing. The snow was crusty enough that there was no avalanche danger, but there was old avy debris all around us so it's worth noting this area does have significant avalanche potential in the right conditions. We plunge stepped and post holed our way down and even did one short glissade. The route through the trees back down to the creek was fairly uneventful. We put snowshoes back on and hiked back down the river and back to the trail. The hike out on the melted out trail was lovely. Those Olympic forests are unlike anything else in the state. They've got a special magic to them, and it was a nice finish to the day hiking through the forest back to the car. My tired leg were happy to see the parking lot, and it felt great to take off my boots and get into some clean clothes!

Bryan heading down

Ozzy leaving the summit

Minaret and Boulder Ridge

Descending the west slopes

Minaret and Gargoyles

Summit and moon

Back down the steep gully

Traversing across

Buckhorn and Co

Broad gully, Turret behind

Wouldn't be spring without post holing!

Big Quilcene River

Forest

Turret turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. What a great day! 9.5 miles 3900 ft gain 11 hours

[Stefan]

Good on you!

[vibramhead]

Wow, really impressive!

[ozzy]

Hell yeah Aaron!! Sweet TR and thanks for the write-up! It was an absolute pleasure gettin out with you again! That was a badass trip and the scenery/weather was top notch...we even got the old extended summit stay too! Let's go get some more, brotha!