The June 16th Snyder team got a cache in at 11,000 feet today, continuing their steady progress up the West Buttress on their Denali ski expedition!

Caching at 11K is an important step on the route, helping the team start staging supplies higher up the mountain. By stashing gear partway up and returning to a lower camp to sleep, the team follows the time-tested mountaineering principle of climb high, sleep low, which supports acclimatization while steadily moving supplies up the route. For a ski team, every cache day comes with an added layer, since the team is hauling skis and ski-specific gear alongside the standard expedition kit, making each carry a little heavier and more involved.

The flip side of all that extra weight is the reward waiting at the top. This team is climbing Denali with the goal of skiing from the summit, one of the most ambitious objectives in North American ski mountaineering. Every foot of elevation the team gains on the way up is terrain they’ll eventually get to ski back down, and days like today, getting supplies staged and continuing to acclimatize, are all part of building toward that big summit ski descent.

For now, the June 16th Snyder team is back at camp with another solid day behind them. With the cache at 11K in place and the team finding their rhythm on the route, the ski extravaganza is rolling right along.

Cache to Camp 2

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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.