The team from our April 29th West Buttress expedition spent the day fortifying their camp at 14, 200′, in the big basin below the West Buttress of Denali.  They endured a pretty rough night of high winds and pretty much zero visibility, and spent the day strengthening their snow walls surrounding their tents.

The weather is looking like it will improve tomorrow and continue to improve, so they are poised to move up to the next camp at 17,200′, when they get a break in the wind.  The next portion of the climb involves the steepest climbing of the route, up the feature called the Headwall, a 600′ high icy face that the climbers ascend using a series of fixed lines of rope.  Above this feature, they will follow the beautiful and very enjoyable ridge that climbs another thousand feet up to high camp.