The Mountain Said “No.”

The Route Up The Headwall, 2000 ft high

We woke up this morning to calm winds, clear skies and a temperature of -20 degrees F. We hadn’t planned on moving up today but conditions looked promising, once the sun came out and heated things up a bit. So, we decided to try to reach the top of the headwall at 16,000 feet. The headwall is a steep section of ice and snow 2,000 feet tall and 45-55 degrees of incline. At the top, there is a ridge leading to high camp at 17,000 feet. We packed half our gear to make a trip up the headwall to cache our loads at the top. About an hour into the climb, the winds really started to pick up and began to blow snow across us. The wind gusts were about 60 miles per hour. I started to feel my cheeks getting painfully cold. I turned around and saw a cap cloud forming over Mount Foraker, the mountain next to Denali.

Example of a Cap Cloud

These types of clouds spell bad weather and higher winds coming. I yelled up to George that I thought we should turn around. I had to yell because he could not hear me any other way due to the wind and snow. We agreed as a team turning around was the safest thing to do. We are now back in camp resting at 14,000 feet. We had made it to 15,000 feet on the headwall. Overall, it helped our bodies get used to the altitude. It also helped by breaking up a string of three straight days stuck in a tent. We are hoping for a fair weather window tomorrow to complete the climb to high camp at 17,000 feet.