West Buttress — 17 days, 4 camps, 36% success rate

The route that changed Denali

Before 1951, climbing Denali meant weeks of overland travel through the Alaska wilderness just to reach the mountain. Bradford Washburn changed that. The legendary cartographer and mountaineer had spent years photographing the Alaska Range from bush planes, and he identified a line up the mountain's southwest face that was safer, shorter, and more direct than anything attempted before. On July 10, 1951, Washburn's eight-person team landed on the Kahiltna Glacier by ski-equipped aircraft, established camps up the West Buttress, and summited. Source: Wikipedia, "Denali"; Wikipedia, "Bradford Washburn".

Washburn's route introduced two innovations that define modern Denali climbing: bush plane access to a glacier base camp at 7,200 feet, and a camp progression that follows natural terrain features for protection from wind and avalanche. The route stuck. In 2024, 96% of Denali's 960 registered climbers attempted the West Buttress. Source: NPS Annual Mountaineering Summaries.

The West Buttress is graded Alaska 2 -- roughly equivalent to alpine PD+/AD-. That sounds moderate. It is not. This is a 17-to-21-day expedition at 63 degrees north latitude, where temperatures at the 14,200-foot camp reach -40 degrees F with winds exceeding 100 mph. The "non-technical" label means you do not need to lead ice pitches. It does not mean you do not need expedition-grade survival skills.

In 2024 and 2025, only 36% of climbers who registered actually summited. The historical average of roughly 50% no longer reflects recent conditions. Source: NPS Annual Summaries.

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The numbers

Source: Alpine Ascents, Denali Itinerary; RMI, West Buttress.

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Day-by-day itinerary

Days 1-2: Anchorage to Talkeetna

Fly into Anchorage (Ted Stevens International, ANC). Drive or shuttle 2.5 hours north on the Parks Highway to Talkeetna, a town of roughly 900 people that serves as the staging point for every West Buttress expedition.

All climbers -- guided and independent -- must attend an in-person orientation at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station. Sessions run at 9 AM, 11 AM, 1:30 PM, and 3:30 PM. Government-issued photo ID required. Rangers review weather patterns, route conditions, waste management protocol, and rescue limitations. The station is named for Walter Harper, the 20-year-old Koyukon Athabascan man who was the first confirmed person to stand on Denali's summit, on June 7, 1913. Source: NPS Mountaineering.

Gear check happens here. Guides will inspect every item against the NPS equipment list. If you are missing something, Talkeetna has limited options -- Alaska Mountaineering School rents sleds and some gear, but do not count on finding expedition boots or a -30 degree F sleeping bag in a town with one main street.

Day 3: Fly to Kahiltna Base Camp (7,200 ft)

A 45-minute flight in a ski-equipped bush plane -- de Havilland Beaver, Cessna 185, or Otter -- deposits you on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Three NPS-authorized air taxi operators serve this route: K2 Aviation, Talkeetna Air Taxi, and Sheldon Air Service (from $660). Source: Sheldon Air Service.

This flight is weather-dependent. Delays of one to three days are common. Plan buffer days in Talkeetna.

At base camp, you organize loads. A typical climber carries 40-70 lbs in a backpack and pulls 60-80 lbs on a sled clipped to the harness. The sled is unique to Denali among the Seven Summits -- no other major peak requires this. You rope up here. From this point forward, you travel on a glacier with hidden crevasses, roped to your teammates with 15-meter spacing.

Day 4: Base Camp to Camp I (7,800 ft) -- +600 ft

A short day. You descend slightly over Heartbreak Hill (so named because you lose elevation you will later need to regain), then traverse the glacier to Camp I. Sled hauling on relatively flat terrain. Rope teams of three, 15-meter spacing, crevasse rescue gear ready.

Days 5-6: Camp I to Camp II (9,800 ft) -- +2,000 ft

The Ski Hill. A sustained uphill pull through deep snow, hauling sleds and heavy packs. Most teams break this into two carries -- haul loads to Camp II, descend to Camp I, sleep, then move up with remaining gear. This is the "carry high, sleep low" protocol that defines the entire expedition.

Days 7-9: Camp II to Camp III (11,000 ft) -- +1,200 ft, plus cache carry to 13,500 ft

Cross Motorcycle Hill and Squirrel Hill to establish Camp III at 11,000 feet. From here, teams make a cache carry to 13,500 feet -- hauling food and fuel up to Windy Corner, burying it in the snow, marking it with wands, and descending back to 11,000 feet to sleep. This doubles your distance traveled but is essential for acclimatization. You will retrieve this cache later.

Day 10: Camp III to Camp IV (14,200 ft) -- +3,200 ft via Windy Corner

The biggest move day. You traverse Windy Corner at approximately 13,200 feet -- an exposed ridge where the route wraps around a shoulder of the West Buttress. This is the first of the four technical cruxes. Winds here routinely exceed 100 mph. Whiteout conditions can materialize in minutes. More teams turn back at Windy Corner than at any other point on the route. Source: Alpine Ascents Itinerary.

Camp IV at 14,200 feet is the logistical hub of the climb. The NPS maintains a seasonal ranger station here, staffed from late April through mid-July. Rangers provide medical assessments, weather forecasts (broadcast on FRS Radio Channel 1), and route condition updates. This is among the highest-altitude seasonal ranger operations in the National Park system. Source: NPS Denali Mountaineering.

Day 11: Cache retrieval

Descend to 13,500 feet to retrieve the cache you buried on Days 7-9. Bring it back to 14,200 feet. You now have all your supplies consolidated at Camp IV.

Days 12-13: Acclimatization and carry to 16,200-17,200 ft

Rest days at 14,200 feet, interspersed with a carry to the upper mountain. Teams haul a cache up the headwall fixed lines to 16,200 or 17,200 feet, then descend back to 14,200 feet to sleep. This is the second application of the carry-high-sleep-low protocol, and it exposes you to the fixed lines before your actual move day.

Practice fixed-line technique here. You will use mechanical ascenders (jumars) to climb the fixed lines, clipping into the rope with both a jumar and a locking carabiner on a tether. The NPS maintains these fixed lines, but you are responsible for knowing how to use them.

Day 14: Rest and weather assessment

Wait at 14,200 feet for a weather window. Teams can be pinned here for 5 to 14 days waiting for stable conditions. The 2024 and 2025 seasons -- both 36% summit rates -- demonstrate what happens when windows do not materialize. Some seasons produce only one or two viable summit windows for the entire climbing period.

This is where expeditions succeed or fail. You cannot force a weather window. You can only be ready when one opens.

Day 15: Headwall to High Camp (17,200 ft) -- +3,000 ft

The headwall is the second major crux. A 900-foot snow and ice slope at 45 to 50 degrees, climbed on NPS-maintained fixed lines between approximately 15,000 and 16,200 feet. You jumar up with ascenders, clipped into the fixed rope. The exposure is significant -- a fall here without being clipped in would be fatal.

Above the headwall, the route follows the West Buttress ridge to High Camp at 17,200 feet. This is the highest camp, and it is brutally exposed. Wind walls built from snow blocks are essential. Temperatures of -40 degrees F are common in May. Source: NPS Weather.

Day 16: Summit day -- 17,200 ft to 20,310 ft and back

The longest day. 12 to 14 hours round trip from High Camp.

Denali Pass (18,200 ft): The third crux. A steep snow slope leading to the upper mountain. Extreme cold and wind exposure. This is the last significant uphill before the summit plateau.

The Football Field (19,500 ft): A deceptively flat traverse at extreme altitude. The fourth crux -- not because of technical difficulty, but because of navigation. In whiteout conditions, teams have become disoriented on this featureless expanse and walked off the edge. At 19,500 feet, cognitive impairment from altitude makes simple navigation decisions unreliable.

Summit ridge: The final push to 20,310 feet. On a clear day, the views extend across the Alaska Range to the Aleutian volcanoes. On a bad day, you see nothing but white.

You descend to High Camp the same day. There is no camping above 17,200 feet.

Days 17-18: Descent to Base Camp

In good weather, the descent from 17,200 feet to Kahiltna Base Camp can be completed in one to two days. Teams reverse the route, down-climbing the fixed lines, retracing the traverse past Windy Corner, and sledging back down the Ski Hill.

Days 19-20: Fly out

Weather-dependent. Bush plane flights from the glacier back to Talkeetna. Delays are common. From Talkeetna, shuttle or drive back to Anchorage.

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The four technical cruxes

1. Windy Corner (~13,200 ft)

An exposed traverse around a ridge shoulder. The route crosses an open slope with no natural protection from wind. Gusts exceeding 100 mph have been recorded. Whiteout storms can develop in minutes, reducing visibility to zero on a slope where route-finding errors lead to crevasse fields. This is the most common point for weather-forced retreats.

2. The headwall fixed lines (15,000-16,200 ft)

A 900-foot snow and ice face at 45 to 50 degrees. NPS rangers install and maintain fixed lines each season. Climbers ascend using mechanical ascenders (jumars) clipped to the fixed rope. The technique is straightforward if you have practiced it. If you have not, this is a dangerous place to learn. Descending the fixed lines requires rappelling or down-climbing while clipped in -- a skill that must be second nature at altitude.

3. Denali Pass (18,200 ft)

The final steep section before the summit plateau. Wind and cold exposure here are among the worst on the route. Frostbite incidents cluster at this elevation. The NPS published a detailed frostbite case study from a 2025 West Buttress climber -- temperatures at this altitude, combined with wind, produce effective wind chills below -60 degrees F. Source: NPS Mountain Blog.

4. The Football Field (19,500 ft)

Not a technical challenge. A navigational and psychological one. At 19,500 feet, the route crosses a broad, flat snowfield between Denali Pass and the summit ridge. In clear weather, it is a straightforward walk. In whiteout conditions -- which are common -- the featureless terrain eliminates all visual reference points. Teams have become lost, walked in circles, or strayed toward cliff edges. Wands (bamboo trail markers) placed on the ascent are essential for finding the descent route. Cognitive function at this altitude is measurably impaired. Source: Alpine Ascents Itinerary.

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The caching strategy

Denali's West Buttress is climbed expedition-style, not alpine-style. The distinction matters.

Alpine style means carrying everything in one push -- light and fast. Expedition style means establishing camps progressively, ferrying loads between them, and using the "carry high, sleep low" protocol to acclimatize.

On the West Buttress, this protocol plays out in two key cache cycles:

1. Camp III (11,000 ft) to 13,500 ft cache: Teams carry food, fuel, and gear up to 13,500 feet near Windy Corner, bury the cache in the snow, mark it with wands, and descend to Camp III to sleep. They retrieve the cache after moving to Camp IV at 14,200 feet.

1. Camp IV (14,200 ft) to 16,200-17,200 ft cache: Teams carry loads up the headwall fixed lines, cache them near or at High Camp elevation, and descend to 14,200 feet to sleep. They collect these loads when they move to High Camp for the summit push.

This doubles the total distance traveled on the mountain. A climber on the West Buttress covers roughly 32 miles -- 16 up and 16 down if climbing straight through, but closer to 50 miles with cache carries factored in. The trade-off is that you sleep at lower altitude while your body adapts to higher elevation, dramatically reducing the risk of acute mountain sickness, HACE, and HAPE.

NPS guidelines recommend ascending no more than 500 meters (1,600 feet) per day, with rest days every three to four days. Source: NPS Medical Issues.

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Rope team protocol

Crevasse risk is constant from base camp to approximately 16,000 feet. The Kahiltna Glacier is riddled with hidden crevasses bridged by snow that can collapse under a climber's weight.

Standard protocol:

• Rope: 50-60 meters of low-stretch rope (9-10.5 mm diameter)
• Team size: Three climbers per rope
• Spacing: 15 meters between climbers
• Attachment: Locking carabiner to harness, with prusik loops pre-tied and accessible for self-rescue
• Crevasse rescue gear: Pulleys, ascenders, prusiks, snow pickets, ice screws

Every team member must know how to arrest a crevasse fall (both as the fallen climber and as the arresting partner), build an anchor, and perform a Z-pulley rescue. Guided teams practice these skills in Talkeetna and again at base camp. Independent teams must arrive with these skills already rehearsed.

Solo climbing is technically permitted with a separate application, but the NPS strongly recommends against it. A solo crevasse fall with no rope partner is likely fatal. Source: NPS Expedition Planning.

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Washburn's first ascent -- 1951

Bradford Washburn was a cartographer, photographer, and mountaineer who had been studying Denali from the air since the 1930s. His aerial photographs -- taken from bush planes flying alongside the mountain -- revealed terrain features invisible from the ground. By 1947, he had identified the West Buttress as the most practical route to the summit.

In 1951, Washburn assembled an eight-person team and chartered a ski-equipped bush plane to land directly on the Kahiltna Glacier at 7,200 feet. This approach -- flying over the Alaska wilderness rather than walking through it -- compressed weeks of overland travel into 45 minutes. The team established camps up the West Buttress and summited on July 10, 1951.

Washburn's wife, Barbara, was not on the 1951 expedition, but she had summited Denali in 1947 via a different route -- becoming the first woman to stand on the peak. Source: Wikipedia, "Bradford Washburn".

The West Buttress route made Denali accessible to a far wider range of mountaineers. Before 1951, only a handful of expeditions had attempted the mountain, all via long overland approaches. After 1951, the combination of bush plane access and a relatively protected route turned Denali from a wilderness expedition into a high-altitude mountaineering objective achievable in three weeks.

This is not to say Washburn made it easy. He made it possible.

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Success rates and what drives them

Source: NPS Annual Mountaineering Summaries; Gripped.

Two consecutive years at 36% is significant. The widely repeated "50% success rate" is a long-term average that no longer describes recent conditions. Weather is the primary variable. In poor weather years, windows for summit attempts may open only once or twice during the entire May-July season. Teams that cannot wait -- because their permit window expires, or their food runs out, or their jobs require them back -- go home without summiting.

Guided teams perform dramatically better. Alpine Ascents International achieved a 100% team summit rate in 2024 -- the same year the overall mountain rate was 36%. RMI Expeditions reports a career average of 74.9% across 300+ expeditions and 50+ years. The difference comes from timing (guides choose departure dates based on long-range forecasts), patience (guides will wait for windows rather than push into marginal weather), and experience (guides have climbed the route dozens of times and know its moods). Source: Alpine Ascents; RMI.

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What you need to know before you go

Prerequisites: This is not a first mountaineering trip. NPS and all guide services expect prior glacier travel experience, crampon proficiency on 30-50 degree slopes, fixed-line technique with mechanical ascenders, and multi-day expedition fitness. The standard training benchmark: carry a 40-70 lb pack while pulling a 60-80 lb sled on moderate terrain for 6-8 hours. Mount Rainier is widely recommended as preparation, but it tests roughly 30% of what Denali demands -- it does not include multi-day storms, -40 degree F temperatures, or the psychological weight of a three-week expedition. Source: NPS FAQ.

Registration: Pay $450 (adults 25+) or $350 (24 and under) via Pay.gov, then email your signed Special Use Permit application to DENA_Talkeetna_Office@nps.gov at least 60 days before departure. Cancellations before February 15 receive a refund minus $100. After February 15, no refund. Source: NPS Mountaineering.

If NPS rescues you, your permit is cancelled. This is not widely publicized. A helicopter evacuation from 14,200 feet means your season is over. You cannot re-register and try again that year. Source: NPS Terms and Conditions.

Clean Mountain Cans (CMCs): Required on the West Buttress. All human waste below 14,200 feet must be removed from the mountain via CMC. Above 14,200 feet, waste goes into a single NPS-designated crevasse or is carried out. Lost CMCs incur a $150 replacement fee. Source: NPS Clean Climbing.

The mountain that climbs harder than its elevation. Denali sits at 63 degrees north. At this latitude, the atmosphere is thinner than at equivalent altitudes near the equator. Climbers experience conditions equivalent to a 22,000-23,000-foot peak at lower latitudes. Combined with the largest base-to-summit elevation gain of any mountain on Earth -- approximately 18,000 feet from the surrounding lowlands to the summit, exceeding Everest's rise from the Tibetan Plateau -- Denali punches far above its 20,310-foot number.

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The first summit

The first confirmed ascent of Denali was not by Washburn. It was on June 7, 1913, by Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum, via the Muldrow Glacier on the north side.

Walter Harper reached the summit first. He was 20 years old, the son of an Irish immigrant father and a Koyukon Athabascan mother. He was thus the first person confirmed to stand on the highest point in North America, and the first Alaska Native to do so -- on a mountain his people had called "the tall one" for millennia before a gold prospector named it after an Ohio politician in 1896.

Harper died five years later, at 25, when the SS Princess Sophia sank in Lynn Canal on October 25, 1918, killing all 343 aboard. He and his wife Frances, married six weeks earlier, were traveling to Philadelphia where he had been accepted to medical school. Their bodies were recovered and buried side by side in Juneau. Source: Wikipedia, "Walter Harper".

Harper Glacier on Denali is named in his honor. The Talkeetna Ranger Station was renamed the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station in 2013. Alaska designated June 7 as annual Walter Harper Day in 2020.

The mountain was named for a man who never saw it. It was first climbed by a man whose people had always known its real name.