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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 8, 2009 - 08:59pm PT
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Any body here climbed at Banks Lake? It is a fun place not far from Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. Short granite climbs in a region of volcanics. Many of the climbs are accessible from land but more are available from a boat.
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kurthicks
climber
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Only ice in the winters...some of the best in Washington.
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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Was supposed to go for the first time this week but the highs are in the teens. going to try next week. supposed to be in the 30's.
Looking for rock NOT ice!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Dick,
As soon as I saw that first shot I was gonna cry "Plagiarist!"
Those shots are at least 25 years old!
I thought somebody did a guidebook to the area.
PM me and I'll send you Whitelaw's email.
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matty
Trad climber
los arbor
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He has more than a lake...
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Ezra
Social climber
WA, NC, Idaho Falls
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Thanks for posting Dick,
I grew up in Spokane, always wanted to make it climbing there!
Is it a stellar area?
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2009 - 10:22pm PT
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Reilly, you are right on. These are scans of slides I shot in 1984. Its been a while since I moved away from the NW, and I was wondering what's going on there now. The cliffs are definitely sport climb length but we did them as mini trads, kinda like the Squamish Smoke Bluffs from a canoe.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Climbed there one day in October about 5 years ago. We didn't have a guide book or a boat, but still plenty to keep us busy for a day. Been meaning to go back. I've heard days in February can be pleasant in the sun.
Arne
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Interesting geology there. An island of quartz monzonite (similar to J tree) in a vast land of mostly basalt surrounding. It is believed the granitic rock was blasted down to the Columbia basin from present day Montana by the ancient glacial Lake Missoula, which repeatedly dammed up from ice and then let loose with an unimaginable force. It sent granite blocks, the size of school buildings, tumbling down the river. This is what caused the deep and long coulee valley that made a short cut to the Columbia River.
Something like that anyway.
Arne
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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There is a recent guide book (2006) called "Rock Climbs of Central Washington" by Rick La Belle.
REI sells it online.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Banks Lake is a great place. I climbed there 3 days this past season. There are some really great trad and sport routes on Highway Rock, and the deep water soloing is epic. There are some good sized multipitch walls across the lake, I think accesible only by boat and the climbing looks killer. Best guidebook I have found is "Rock Climbs of Central Washington" by Rick Labelle. There are a ton of new routes. Granite climbing in a sea of basalt, its amazing. Here's DocBS from ST getting it done!
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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I always thought that Banks Lake area granite was part of the Mt Stuart batholith to the west, and that it just never got covered by lava flows. I bet Fred Beckey knows....
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 9, 2009 - 12:25am PT
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I was a Geology major and, although I never really studied the Banks Lake area, I can tell that the granite is bedrock and not washed down from somewhere else. What Arne says about huge granite blocks is however true. The Clark Fork in present Montana was dammed up by an ice age glacier and formed a huge lake. Eventually the lake got so large that it floated the glacier off the ground and the whole lake cut loose in a cataclysmic flood scouring out the scablands. This happened more than once.
One time while riding in a helicopter in the BC coast Mountains I saw the results of something similar on a smaller scale, where, as I recall, a large avalanche had dammed up a tributary of the Homathko River. Eventually the lake built up until the dam gave way. What we saw was all the timber in the valley bottom flattened for about twenty miles or so.
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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For those interested PBS did a show called "The Mystery of the Megaflood". It shows up every once in a while. It is about how the whole scablands and Columbia Basin were formed by the megafloods.
Below is an interactive map. You need Flash
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/scab-flash.html
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Ahh, those old shots are great. The water access stuff has mostly fallen off the map, though David Whitelaw included some in his Weekend Rock guide to Washington. There are two other guides to Banks, and neither include any of the boat access routes.
I think the pleasure of climbing out of a canoe at Banks has changed over the years. A couple years ago I did a 5.9 crack on one of the faces on the main channel, I think Whitelaw calls it "Bass-o-matic." The constant boat and jet ski traffic kept up the waves resulting in the belay boat banging back and forth against the rock and pulling my piss poor #1 friend belay tie off. It wasn't my favorite route on that trip.
Pretty damn cool place though.
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franky
climber
Davis, CA
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I almost took a job in Ephrata a few years ago (before I knew anything about climbing).
I didn't take it because I didn't think there would be anything to do there. haha.
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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I remember doing a climb called "Carrot Top"......it was summer, quite warm, and we climbed right off the highway.....good enough place....and we saw a laser light show at the Grand Coulee Dam.........it's another world from Seattle.....
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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A friend of mine spent some time new-routing at Banks Lake. Twelve years ago my current and his ex girlfriend took me out there. My memory is of very short climbs with silly names, on good rock, with cool moves. Well, actually my main memory is of being afraid the rednecks in the trucks that pulled in to where we were bivied would rape and murder us, but since I'm posting here a dozen years later I guess they didn't.
I guess it's okay, but it's probably not a place to plan a climbing trip to.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Rednecks aren't usually as scary as they look. They just don't give a fek. "You'all got a purty mouth."
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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You're skairt of them there rednecks Ghost? and you live in Washington? Just wear a dirty baseball cap and a plaid shirt and you'll blend right in, especially if you hang a gunrack in your truck and put a John Deere sticker on your bumper. Nobody will mess with ya. Just don't stop for gas in Sultan. Otherwise squeal like a pig!!
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