On the West Buttress ridge approach to Denali summit, most climbers camping at the Advance Base camp take an acclimation day to climb up the head wall on fixed lines, bringing supplies up to the top of the headwall and leaving a cache on the ridge at about 16,400 ft elevation before returning to 14,300 feet.
The headwall is the steepest section of the whole climb to the summit. Bringing food up to a cache is good training to get used to the higher altitude (spending the day higher but sleep lower to avoid altitude sickness), and reduce the load to carry when moving to High Camp a couple of days later for the Summit push.

The top of the ridge has dramatic 300 degree views, south down the headwall fixed ropes to the 14,300 Advance base camp, west along the ridge towards Mt Foraker, and North into the Denali National Park valley. To the North-East the side of the Denali summit base near the High Camp comes into view.

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Elevation 4,870 m

Weather

Monday 10 November

-22°C

-26°C

100 %

If you start your activity now...

Max wind speed: 13.0 km/h

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Location: Denali Borough, Alaska, United States

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