Intro

In 2017, Denali National Park climbing ranger Mark Westman was digging through the archives of climber registrations from the 1970s and 1980s when he noticed an interesting trend. While the majority of the registered climbers were headed to the West Buttress, the main route on Denali, large percentages were going to other, less-popular routes, such as the East, South, and Northwest buttresses, and the Muldrow Glacier. People were exploring all over the place.

“As with today, the majority of Denali climbers were registered for the West Buttress,” Westman wrote, “but there was also a healthy representation of climbers attempting Denali’s other moderate routes. In general, these routes are longer and more logistically complicated than the West Buttress, with lengthy approaches, and in some cases, slightly greater technical difficulties. But none of them are technically difficult by modern standards, nor do any, with the exception of the East Buttress, have substantially greater objective hazards. They do, however, generally require more ingenuity, planning, patience, and determination, as well