The May 19th West Buttress Denali Expedition has made their first foray around the notorious Windy Corner in order to install a cache of food and gear below Camp 3! 

A climber from the team called in with some special shout outs and birthday wishes for the loved ones at home.

Listen here: Audio Recording

Why is it called Windy Corner? Well…

Windy Corner living up to its name.

The “Windy Corner” on the West Buttress Route is infamous for challenging expedition teams, 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.

Kudos to the May 19th Team for putting in this critical cache and we wish them the best of luck as they plan to move up to Camp 3 at 14,200′ in the coming days!