Mountain Trip guide Robert “Durny” Durnell called in with an update on the June 16 West Buttress Expedition on Denali. Last night the team made their cache at about 10,000′ on the notoriously windy Kahiltna Pass above Ski Hill. The team was undoubtedly tired out by carrying and pulling the heavy loads up a couple thousand vertical feet, but caching supplies will help them immensely when they actually make the move up to Camp 2 at 11,200′. Durny likes to refer to 11-Camp as “cloud camp” because climbers typically ascend above the cloud layer at the pass.

The team had a late night dinner of imitation crab and Japanese noodles. They plan on leaving later this afternoon, once the midday heat has begun to abate and the glacier begins to firm up once again.

Here’s Durny with the update: