The May 26th team had another productive day on the mountain, back-carrying their cache and bringing all their supplies safely up to Camp 2. With those loads now consolidated, the team has everything they need in one place and is well-positioned to keep working their way up the route.

Back-carrying is a key part of the expedition-style rhythm on Denali. The team heads down to where the cache was buried, digs the supplies out of the snow, repacks them into sleds and packs, and hauls everything back up to camp. The loads are heavy on the return leg, but the route is familiar ground the team has already traveled, which makes the day feel more manageable than a brand-new push. It’s also another chance for climbers to settle into the rhythm of moving as a rope team and to keep building on the skills they’ve been refining since stepping onto the glacier.

This cache-and-back-carry pattern is the foundation of how teams safely and successfully move a mountain’s worth of gear up Denali. It can feel repetitive, but each trip strengthens the team’s familiarity with the route, builds steady acclimatization, and advances their supplies toward the upper mountain.

For now, the May 26th team is settled in at Camp 2 with another solid day behind them. The team is climbing well, finding their rhythm together, and steadily working their way up the West Buttress.

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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.