Denali west buttress advice

Hello, I am looking for advice from experienced climbers. Denali is my next goal and I am wondering if anyone has recommendations for mountaineering classes (especially on glaciers crossing) and physical training regiments. I am an intermediate climber with a loose plan to attempt a climb in 1-2 years. I have previously summited Shasta, Whitney, Telescope peak, and a handful of similar climbs. I’d appreciate any other general advice and recommendations as well.

Rainier would be high on the list. Spend a lot of time winter camping in the snow and cold and get good at it.  

Sunny-D wrote:

Rainier would be high on the list. Spend a lot of time winter camping in the snow and cold and get good at it.  

The above is good advice. The biggest issue on the West Buttress is being able to function in cold, damn cold, real cold weather. Most people under estimate it. For instance, one needs to take their gloves off to fix some thing trivial. In butt fuck cold one learns to put their gloves inside their jacket so keep them warm instead of toss them on their pack. Seems simple but many do not think about it.

Absolutely. Spend a week on the Emmons Glacier—camping on snow, practicing rope systems, and moving around Tahoma. This will provide some of the best training you can get in the lower 48. The sled drags and the cold glacier living will be tough for most people, and the 16 miles with 20,000 feet of climbing (including double carries) will be demanding on Denali. However, your goal should be to thrive on the mountain and be ready to move quickly when the weather clears.

Agreed. Lots of winter camping in below zero weather. Big difference between that and a summer trip to rainier. 

Hike with heavy loads for training. I load 3 10 liter dromedaries with water and do lots of up then dump the water at the top to come back down. Go get a big used tire and rig it so you can pull it, then drag it around your neighborhood.  All your neighbors will think your weird but if you wear out a couple of tires you’ll be in great sled pulling shape 

6 months of hard training. 

Kiss your social life goodbye. I hope you are single or have a very understanding partner (my wife is a saint!). Also helps to have a flexible job schedule and be able to train in the mountains

Gold standard is the plan from Uphill Athlete https://uphillathlete.com/training-plans/24-week-mountaineering-training-plan-rpe/

I followed an older version of that plan. Was in the best shape of my life, and didn't find the climb all that difficult after all that prep

1) Learn to enjoy suffering. 

2) Pick June.  Weather is colder and more unsettled in May. 

Only tried it once.  We went early May because we wanted better snowbridges for the NE Fork. Were going to go to 14 for acclimitization, head down West Rib, and go to base of Cassin. However,  the weather had other ideas.  It snowed 14 days out of 17 before we bailed.  Spent most of our time in the tent playing cards,  listening to tunes,  and drinking whiskey. Will never forget toward the end on day 4 of a bad storm that had us digging out every hour hearing guys in tent near us break into,  "The sun will come out,  Tomorrow," from Annie. They'd been reduced to playing cutthroat poker for food since most of theirs had been moved up to 14 before the 5 day storm set in. We gave them some of ours when we decided to bail 

I dont think you need to practice suffering winter camping in the lower 48 too much.  Do get out on glaciers as much as possible. You do need super strong legs and lungs and brain. Serious dedication to deadlifts and kettlebell swings aughta do the trick. And wear out tires on your neighborhood streets.

Absolutely gotta know how to travel safely on glaciers and pull someone out of a crevasse very efficiently. 

Skiers rarely, rarely fall in crevasses up there. Snowshoers do damn near every week. Food for thought.  

You need a knowledgeable, strong legged, strong willed, optimistic partner. Guide services can easily end up be like being on the most expensive bad date with bad guides and bad clients you share a tent with.

Its not a hard ascent at all. The conditions, time restrictions, and miniscule bad decisions/mistakes can cause failure or frostbite or death. 

There's beaucoup of pages of advice on here for the W Butt. 

If you can afford it take a week or two crevasse rescue class at the Kahiltna International Airport the early summer before your trip. Climb Mt Francis (and Kahiltna Dome?) while youre there. Save up money to do this--no better place to learn glacier travel/rescue and winter thriving than w the pros up there. Then plan and train for a four week successful expedition the following summer.