Windy Corner

The June 15th team headed out today to cache around Windy Corner, taking on one of the more demanding objectives on the lower mountain.

Windy Corner sits at around 13,500 feet and is one of the more notorious sections of the West Buttress. It earns its name by funneling wind off the upper mountain, and conditions there can shift quickly. Getting a cache through that section takes good timing, focus, and the willingness to seize the right window. By stashing supplies higher up the route, the team is setting themselves up for a more efficient move when it’s time to relocate to 14 Camp.

Caching is a key part of the expedition-style rhythm on Denali. The team climbs up with a load, buries the cache in the snow, and then returns to a lower camp to sleep, following the time-tested principle of climb high, sleep low. This approach supports acclimatization while steadily moving supplies up the mountain.

For now, the June 15th team is back at camp with another solid day of work behind them. With supplies now staged past Windy Corner, the team is in a strong position to keep building momentum on the route.

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Interested in more information about conditions and happenings on Denali? Be sure to also check out the Denali National Park’s Denali Dispatches Blog where they post weekly Field Reports.