I’ve now attempted Denali’s West Buttress twice, once unguided and once guided. So I have some opinions on what you should consider in figuring out (1) whether to climb it at all and (2) whether to climb it guided.
Do keep in mind that I’ve never made it above 15,000 feet on this mountain, so there may be factors specific to the upper mountain not discussed here. On my recent attempt I had to turn around at the base of the fixed lines because my asthma seems to be triggered by altitude and cold air and no amount of drugs will stop it.
1. Should you climb Denali’s West Buttress?
Here’s a very opinionated flow chart to help you figure out whether to climb Denali’s West Buttress.
If You’re Not A 50-State High Pointer Or A Seven Summiter, Why Do This?
Denali is a long slog with lots of people, and most of the climb isn’t very interesting. I usually like glacier slogs and even I thought the West Buttress below 14,000 feet was pretty boring. If you want to do a cool guided climb in Alaska, there are other, more interesting options. Such as Mt. Foraker and Mt. Hunter in the Alaska Range, and a host of options in the Wrangell St. Elias area.
If you’re capable of doing expedition climbs independently, Alaska is your oyster. The West Buttress is not the pearl of that oyster.
You Should Know What You Are Doing
Note that this flowchart assumes that you have enough experience to know what type of mountaineering you like to do. YOU SHOULD HAVE A LOT OF MOUNTAINEERING EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOU TRY DENALI. You need to be proficient with self-arrest, rope-walking, and crampon use just to be on a guided climb. These things should be like second nature to you, because you will have to do them in one of the most unforgiving environments on the planet. Also, it’s really irritating and somewhat dangerous when you walk faster than the person in front of you and leave too much slack in the rope.
Cold Builds Character
If you are fine with everything else but just hate cold, I would still encourage you to go. Of course, if you have a medical problem that is triggered by cold, such as Raynaud’s or cold uticaria, don’t go. I belatedly learned that I fell into this group, since my asthma seems to be triggered by a combination of altitude and cold air (which gets colder the higher you go).
I hate the cold, but I felt like the process of learning to live in it was good character-building, and even sometimes fun. I went to Antarctica, took a Denali prep class, and did some winter camping in the Cascades. If you live in the northeast, the White Mountains in New Hampshire will teach you all about cold.
It’s also not super cold on most of the West Buttress in June. I used my overmitts all the time when I was there in May of 2016, but did not use them at all in June of 2024 and in fact kept them cached in the snow for part of the trip. There were definitely some very cold mornings at 14K, but once the sun hit us we warmed up pretty fast.
My biggest tip for dealing with the cold is to use nitrile exam gloves when you have to go to the bathroom in the cold. It helps with the cold in two ways. First, you protect your fingers from direct wind exposure. I did not bring my nitrile gloves on my Tahoma Glacier climb and got frostnip on my fingers in the space of a couple of minutes when I had to go to the bathroom near the summit of Rainier when the temps were in the teens with wind. Second, the West Buttress is a long expedition and hand sanitizer can only do so much. I would still suggest using hand sanitizer afterwards (keep it warm in your jacket!), but gloves give you another layer of defense against stomach bugs in a place where you really don’t want to have them.
Do you hate training?
Most people who mountaineer do a lot of training. But if you are one of those lucky people who hates training and just happens to be in great shape for overnight mountaineering trips, first, I hate you, and second, you probably need more organized (and boring) training to haul 100 pounds up Denali’s West Buttress. I hauled a sled up forest service roads or ski slopes one or two days a week, hiked Mailbox old trail a lot, lifted weights 2-4 days a week, and did speed/power work only about one day a week. It was pretty boring, but effective.
2. Should you climb Denali’s West Buttress Guided?
The second question everyone asks is whether you should climb Denali’s West Buttress Guided. Even though I rarely climb guided and don’t really like it, I’m still generally in favor of climbing the West Buttress guided. The climbing on the West Buttress is not particularly difficult, but I don’t think that should even be a factor in the decision because you should be a capable glacier mountaineer regardless of whether you are going guided or not. My mountaineering experience is old enough to drink and I still went guided.
Camping on Denali is Hard
To me, the main challenge on Denali is camping at high elevation in a sub-arctic environment. You need to be able to haul heavy loads, then get to camp and dig out tent sites, put up your tents, fight with the stoves when your fingers are cold and spend hours melting water. If carrying the loads themselves is already a massive challenge, as it was for me, you may not have the mental or physical capacity left to do all of what you need to do in camp.
Everything is harder in the cold. Tying hitches in your guylines might require you to take your gloves off occasionally, or at least strip down to a thin glove layer. Then you go to cook and at least one of your stoves will malfunction. You do want to use multiple stoves. We only used one in 2016, and it took way too long to melt water. Our guides used three stoves at a time under a large pot to melt water. Keep in mind that what might be fun and easy on a nice day on Rainier may be extremely difficult on Denali.
Going guided allows you to spend time recovering for the next day instead of going to bed exhausted. I liked to mix up some protein powder, do some tent yoga, and foam roll with my Bottle Roller* while the guides melted water for us. I’m not sure I would have been able to go hard the next day without that recovery time.
You Need to Have Your Systems Dialed
If you’re climbing independently, each person on the team needs to be able to set up a crevasse rescue system capable of hauling a person and a fully-loaded sled out of a crevasse. One of the benefits of going guided is that you will have multiple guides who have the systems dialed, and a big team, which means lots of arms to pull. You and your one friend who agreed to come? It’s going to be harder to get someone out.
Denali’s West Buttress is Hard
People (like me in 2016) consistently underestimate the difficulty of the West Buttress because the first half of the climb is pretty easy. I think pejoratives like “the West Butt” play into that perception. This route is hard because of the the weight of the loads and the cold. It’s also more technical above 15,000 feet, where you might not be thinking as clearly. There are fixed lines, knife-edge icy ridges, and exposed rock. This is a place where each team has to be fully self-sufficient. If you are with a guide the scope of your responsibility is smaller, since you are only responsible for yourself, not broken stoves and difficult decisions. It’s a serious place, and requires some serious choices in planning.
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