Trip Report

The Direct West Buttress is a feature on the western side of Denali near the standard route up the mountain. The normal West Buttress route avoids the major difficulties on the direct buttress by traversing onto the plateau at 14,200 and then continuing up a steep snow and ice face called the "Headwall." The West Buttress Direct tackles the buttress straight on through difficult, mixed terrain. Thunder Ridge is a feature on the buttress and the line that John, Erik, and Robert took closely followed this ridge.

The climbing on the ridge was mixed for the first 15 pitches. They called it "difficult but never extreme." The remainder of the climbing was a mixture of easier snow and steeper ice that was up to 60 degrees in spots. In total the route was 21 pitches from the base to the top of the feature. From the top of the route, the team traversed along a horizontal portion of the ridge and met up with the fixed lines at 16,000 feet at the top of the headwall on the normal West Buttress route. They descended the fixed lines back the 14,200-foot plateau and then descended to their camp which they reached after 20 hours on the go.

The lower part of the Southwest Ridge of Mt. Francis inthe background.

Back at Denali Base Camp the group opted for a mellow outing while trying to plan their next objective. In a quick day- trip they skied up and down a smaller peak just outside of camp called Radio Control Tower. John called it "a beautiful and scenic ski tour."

Because the weather was unsettled and the snow conditions were not ideal, the team decided to forego their attempt at climbing Foraker and instead opted for the Southwest Ridge of Mt. Francis. This route offered 18 pitches of sunny rock climbing, and the group completed them in 22 hours camp-to-camp.