The May 11th team had a productive day on the mountain, back-carrying their cache from the Windy Corner site and bringing all their supplies safely back to camp. With those loads now reunited at 14 Camp, the team has consolidated their position and is ready to focus on what comes next.

Back-carry days follow a different rhythm than fresh cache days or move days. The team heads down to where the cache was buried, digs it out of the snow, repacks the supplies into sleds and packs, and hauls everything back up to camp. While the loads are heavy on the return leg, the trip itself covers familiar ground the team has already traveled, which helps make the day feel more manageable. There’s also something quietly satisfying about reclaiming supplies you stashed days earlier. It’s a reminder that the slow, methodical approach to expedition-style climbing is working, and that the team is steadily moving a mountain’s worth of gear higher.

Windy Corner, sitting at around 13,500 feet, is one of the more notorious sections of the West Buttress and a section the team has now traveled multiple times. Getting through it with a load of supplies on a back-carry day, especially after the weather it took to drop the cache in the first place, is no small accomplishment. Every successful trip through the Corner builds the team’s confidence on the route and adds to their familiarity with the conditions higher up.

With all their gear now back at camp, the team is well-positioned to look ahead to the next phase of the expedition. The focus will shift to acclimatizing, recovering, and preparing for the next move higher up the mountain when the weather and conditions align.

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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.