Big Butte - South Face
Big Butte - South Face in Washington has 13 routes with 8 difficulty grades, offering mixed, sport, and trad climbing.
- 13 routes
- 5.2 – 5.8
- Sport · Trad · Mixed
Is Big Butte - South Face open right now?
Closure in the area
There's a closure order in Tonasket Ranger District. It doesn't name Big Butte - South Face, so check the source for the area it covers.
Sinlahekin Fire Closure Terminated on Tonasket Ranger District
Agency closure covering Tonasket Ranger District · Order 06-21-09-26-15 · USFS · Tonasket Ranger District
Colville National Forest Terminates Fire Public Use Restrictions
Agency alert covering Colville National Forest · Order 06-21-00-26-14 · USFS · Colville National Forest
As of · Source: USFS · Tonasket Ranger District. Agencies don't list every closure — check before you go.
Best time to visit Big Butte - South Face
Best months: April–June and September–October. Best months have typical highs of 55–85 °F, lows of 30 °F or warmer (32 °F where the station doesn't record snow), at most one snowy day and no more than 12 wet days.
Jan
34° / 23°
Feb
42° / 26°
Mar
54° / 31°
Apr
64° / 37°
May
74° / 44°
Jun
79° / 50°
Jul
88° / 55°
Aug
87° / 54°
Sep
77° / 46°
Oct
61° / 37°
Nov
44° / 29°
Dec
34° / 24°
Typical high / low (°F) and days with rain or snow, 1991–2020. Measured at Tonasket 4 Nne, WA, 6.7 mi away at 960 ft. The station sits about 500 ft lower than this place, so expect it a little cooler here. This station doesn't record snowfall. Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020.
Big Butte - South Face is a climbing area in the Tonasket Ranger District of Colville National Forest in north-central Washington, managed by the Forest Service. It sits within a cluster of climbing areas, with Big Butte and Big Butte - West Face each about 0.1 mile away and West Wall about 0.2 mile away. The area has 13 routes, with six sport routes and six trad routes, and the grades run from 5.2 to 5.8 on the YDS scale. Among the named routes are Return of the Mighty M.O.G.S (5.2, sport) and Natural Gas (5.3, trad), both of which were first ascended in 2010 and 2013. For comfortable weather, late spring and early fall are the best bets. Typical averages from a nearby weather station in Tonasket show May highs around 74°F and September highs around 77°F, while July and August average in the upper 80s. That station sits about 500 feet lower than the climbing area, so temperatures on the butte run a little cooler. Whistler Canyon Trail is about 2 miles away for a hike, and Tonasket Creek offers canoeing about 5 miles out. Spectacle Lake and the Similkameen Trail are both roughly 7.5 miles away.
Routes (13)
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Photo: Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, Public Domain Mark (via Flickr)West Face
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Photo: Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, Public Domain Mark (via Flickr)South Side
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Photo: Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region, Public Domain Mark (via Flickr)West Side
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Photo: BLM Oregon & Washington, Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)East Side
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