Banks Lake Trip Report

Words and photos by JT Croston

This past summer I took the family to Banks Lake, Washington, and thought I would post a few pics from the trip. The area consists of a granite intrusion into the Grand Coulee at the end of Lake Roosevelt. Bring your swimming shorts, canoe, and “A” game to tackle some of the impossible hard granite face and crack climbing. There are also tons of easy-to-moderate sport routes and some basalt pillers. Definitely worth the trip. It gets really hot in high summer but fall is the perfect time to go. It takes about 5 1/2 hours from Nelson to get there. There are a couple of guidebooks for the area but both are out of date and don’t include a lot of the newer harder routes. There seems to have been a considerable amount of development there in the last few years.

This is what rockclimbing.com has to say about the area: “A vast and beautiful area with 100+ mostly bolted sport routes ranging from 5.7 to 5.13. There are numerous multi-pitch bolted routes, moderately rated. This is a great place to spend a day, weekend, or week, and it has a long season. Plenty of camping near by, and good Mexican food too. Massive first acsent potential! A boat would be helpful to get to some of the rock. Beware of rattlesnakes in the summer. Try to take care of the area. If you climb here pack out the trash so the area stays nice. Steamboat State Park is also here though I doubt that Steamboat Rock has much potential. It is a nice hike though to get a good view at the area. This is also a great ice climbing area in the winter.”

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