direct west buttress

[ivan]

anyone out there who's climbed one of the direct west buttress routes (thunder ridge, upper peters basin, wb direct, upper kahiltna)? determined to do one of these here next month and was interested in hearing experiences anybody might have had such as # of days to do the face, locations of camps, single vs. double carries, etc. my main interest is doing some enjoyable, exposed climbing prior to reaching 16 and shaking the crowds for a few days... if you've just climbed the standard route, did you notice anybody on any of the wb direct routes?

[Duchess]

i just got back from denali--the crowds were just starting to arrive and when we left 14 there were only two other parties there. they were climbing the standard wb. we talked to many of the parties heading up, most were doing the wb, a couple were talking about the upper west rib, and one party seemed dead set on climbing the messner (i don't know why...). that was all that we heard or saw... conditions looked really good though for any of the direct routes.

[ryland_moore]

Did ya summit Dutchess? How was it? Weather? Glacier conditions on WB?

[Duchess]

no summit! said climbing partners ended their two year relationship at 14,000' and immediately high-tailed it back to talkeetna. my other partner and i hemmed and hawed for awhile, finally decided to also retreat because our stove wasn't working reliably. we'd spent five weeks in the range as well, and frankly, i was ready for a beer and a shower. prior to denali, we had spent three weeks in the ruth ampitheatre climbing mt. dickey, barille, dan beard, and the mooses tooth (but that's another story)

we were the first party up the kahiltna for the season, and the masses were moving in as we flew out of base camp. it was amazing to see what a different world it became, as we had spent three nights along at base camp before setting out. since we were so early, the route was incredibly straight forward. we were able to skirt underneith mt. francis with only a couple of sketchy crevasse crossings; now the route runs WAY out onto the kahiltna before heading north. the only other route conditions worth reporting are that there were already some tricky crevasse crossings around 14,000. a couple of parties we talked to reported falling in. anyhow, by the time you guys get there, you'll be able to follow the boot path up. and actually, we were able to follow last year's boot path up. i guess that the trail was so compacted, the winter's winds blew away everything BUT the path, which remained snaking up the mtn.

anyhow, denali had a pretty mild winter this year, and it wasn't near as cold as we had anticipated. cold, yes, but not life-threatening. we sat through a two-day wind-storm at 14, getting out of the tent every couple of hours to dig out. during this time, three of us went down to pick up a cache at 13,500. the winds were far worse for this event than they were either of the times we carried around windy corner. so, go figure.

conditions looked great on the upper west rib, which is what we had really hoped to do. maybe next year?

anyhow, good luck on your trip. feel free to pm me if you have any other questions...

[ivan]

so that's it? 3 measly responses? i thought we had a million badass climbers around here...none a you fools done any of these routes? makes sense, i reckon...too much good out here in the nw to bother going outside

 

hey, a real adventure!

[JoshK]

ivan said:

so that's it? 3 measly responses? i thought we had a million badass climbers around here...none a you fools done any of these routes? makes sense, i reckon...too much good out here in the nw to bother going outside

 

hey, a real adventure!

 

The west buttress isn't badass...that's your problem, man.

[JoshK]

BTW, PM me, I'll be back in Seattle Saturday night between climbs if ya wanna meet up to get the giant boots o' warmth.

[specialed]

ivan said:

so that's it? 3 measly responses? i thought we had a million badass climbers around here...none a you fools done any of these routes? makes sense, i reckon...too much good out here in the nw to bother going outside

 

hey, a real adventure!

 

Apparantly you haven't done the route either. So STFU wanker

[ivan]

i am deeply hurt...the short-bus folk always had that mysterious ability over me to actually make me give a fuck what some total stranger thought

[Ade]

Please play nice people.

 

As for your question.

 

I don't think I saw or heard of anyone on those routes last year. I doubt they see more than a couple of ascents between them each season and that's being optimistic. Another option is the West Rib or Upper West Rib to finish the WB. Neither of these routes see a lot of traffic. We saw two other parties on the Rib when we were there.

 

I think the statistic is that about 90%+ of climbers in the Denali Park are on the West Butt. Stay off that and you'll have the place to yourself.

[Squid]

Hey Duchess!

I wanna hear your report of loitering in the Ruth. By far my most interesting moments in the Alaska Range were poking around in the lower Kahiltna, scouting out potential climbs (Ramparts, anyone?).

When we turned the corner and joined the masses 'doing Denali', the experience lost a lot of the mystery & magic for me.

So, out with those TR's of Barille and Dan Beard and Moose's Tooth- I really want to hear them!