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Banks Lake (Top Roping)

The Approach

Dylan and I decided to try our luck with some Central Washington ice climbing. We packed up after a night shift at work at drove to Leavenworth. We were getting pretty excited about tomorrow as temperatures continued to drop as we got closer to Leavenworth. The thermometer in the car was dipping down to a balmy 0 degrees!

We spent the night in Leavenworth and woke up bright and early for the remainder of the drive to Banks Lake. I think it was about 5 hours from Seattle to Banks Lake total. The drive through Central Washington covered in snow was pretty surreal.

After reaching the lake we were pretty excited to see all the ice right off the side of the road. We both had our heads sticking out the window to get a better look at the surroundings.

The Climb

The actual goal for the trip was to climb the Devil's Punch Bowl. I have heard that this was a great beginner ice climb and I was pretty stoked to swing some tools on something besides glacier ice. We pulled into the parking lot with one other car and the ice looking pretty fat! We packed the bags and hiked up to the base of the route while the other party was setting a top rope on Trotsky's Folly. We thought we were pretty lucky to have the only other party there to chose a different route.

From the car we noticed the notorious death-cicles hanging over the route but we continued to tell ourselves that they are always that big and deadly. I didn't worry about it until we got to the base of the ice and started to hear the chunks of ice cascade onto the route. I ignored the first chunk, started contemplating the second chunk and after a 10 minute period and 4 large chunks of ice falling where I was supposed to be climbing we shouldered our packs and headed back down to the car.

We drove around for a bit and looked for some other climbs that might be with in our ability but didn't really find anything. We eventually came back to the punch bowl and set a top-rope on Trotsky's Folly so we could at least get on something. The ice was really wet and a lot of water was running underneath so we didn't climb the pillar but instead did a couple of laps on the lower portion of the route. I couldn't figure out why with a high temperature of 12 degrees we were completely getting soaked and the ice looked like it was deteriorating. Next year, Lilooet maybe.

-Useful guide books-

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