Northwest Buttress of Denali

The Northwest Buttress line of ascent in red, with the West Buttress line of descent in green.
Thanks to TAT for the use of this awesome photo!

I remember gazing up the Kahiltna with a cardiologist from Canada over a decade ago. We were camped on an airy perch on Mount Crosson, and I was vicariously tracing the numerous classic routes we could see on the south side of Denali. The Doc pointed off well to the left of the Cassin and The Rib, and directed my attention to the left hand skyline of Denali. Steep snow slopes led up and through rock bands to a long, corniced ridge that curved to meet the north peak of the mountain.

"That," he said in a voice from some other plane of existence, "is a most sublime line."

I knew that Gary Bocarde, my boss at the time and founder of Mountain Trip, had climbed that line, the Northwest Buttress, back in the 1980's to make the second ascent of the route. I mentioned this to my doctor friend and he said he'd like to give it a try some day.

A dozen years later, and after many attempts to sort out a team to attempt the NW Buttress, I am happy to announce that we have a team and will give the route a try.

Mountain Trip has historically had good success on the route, as we made not only the 2nd, but the 3rd and the 5th ascents of the line, adding significant variations each time. I've not yet been able to find out how many times it has been attempted, but I'd guess less than 20, perhaps much less.

Many guide services are content to stick to high probability, low risk routes, and that's fine. We at Mountain Trip have always identified ourselves as climbers, and the climber in me really wants to find out what that most sublime line is like, up close and personal. Numerous questions arise, from the esoteric to the practical. What will it feel like to drop off the north side of Kahiltna Pass, leaving the relative security net of the West Buttress behind? Will we be able to climb around the rock bands or will we need to climb through them? How will my mind reconcile my 5' 11" insignificance when we chop through a cornice to gaze down the 14,000' vertical drop of the Wickersham Wall, one of the biggest alpine faces on the planet? The power of the unknown is one of the driving forces behind why we all climb, and this route embodies a lot of unknown.

We have two climbers committed and are therefore going to launch the trip. We can accept two more fit climbers with solid alpine skills. This is a relatively unique opportunity , so if you are at all interested, please contact us. The trip details are as follows:

The Northwest Buttress
Dates: May 3 - 30, 2011
Team Size: 2 Guides / 2-4 Climbers
Trip Cost: $7000 per climber

Trip fees include: 2 nights lodging in Anchorage before the climb, round-trip scheduled group transportation between Anchorage and Talkeetna, glacier flights, all food while on the climb, all group equipment (tents, ropes, kitchen, etc), and our top-tier guides.

Give us a call or drop us an email if you would like to join the team.
T. +1-970-369-1153
E. info@mountaintrip.com