The May 10th West Buttress Denali Expedition has established a cache around Windy Corner. And, in even better news, they’ve been dealt some beautiful weather to make the move, which is a luxury on Denali!
Assistant Guide Marcus called in to give us a glimpse into their day. Give it a listen!
It sounds like the May 10th Team is having a downright good time up there, complete with a Pizza Party!
The “Windy Corner” on the West Buttress Route is infamous for challenging expeditions, because it is a part of the route where the trail takes climbers across a narrow section of the upper Kahiltna Glacier as they ascend to Camp 3 at 14,000′. This section of the mountain forms a pinch point, where the path of travel is squeezed between the huge rock buttress that forms the beginning of the West Buttress proper and the precipitous drop off where the mountain falls away 4,000′ down to the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna below. Due to the exposed nature of this section of the route, it can be, you guessed it, VERY WINDY, as you round the corner to get up to Camp 3.
The Windy Corner can often look like this:
The “Windy Corner” living up to its name.
But it sounds like, for the May 10th Team, it looked more like this:
A nice day to head around “Windy Corner”.
Hopefully, the weather continues to hold for the May 10th team so that they can move up to Camp 3 in the coming days!
