My daughter has a denali and although she likes it; she says it is not very warm. What is a lower cost option for her/me. Inner windproof layer such as Apex Bionic or outer shell such as Venture?

Unfortunately you're not going to find a North Face fleece that's warmer than the Denal - it has 300 weight fleece, which is the warmest made, vs the 100 weight on the windwall. If the issue is coldness due to wind chill however you may find the Denali is simply not warm enough alone because fleece is not intended to block out heavy winds. The windwall 1 would be a nice thing to layer on top of a denali if it's really cold out, but keep in mind that either one of these alone still won't stand up to the chill. Windwall is not fully windproof, whereas TNF Apex is, so it might be worth spending the extra money on the apex. Also, the apex has more better resistance to it, so when it comes time to depend on this piece as more of a shell, the apex will repel water better than the windwall and be more versatile in that sense. And in the case of tossing another layer over a Denali (which is considerably thick as it is), you'll definitely want to size up on whatever outer layer you decide to go with. Hope that helps.

Hi Geri, Since your daughter already has a warm layer in the Denali jacket, I would recommend the venture or a like outer shell jacket to block the wind/rain and seal in the warmth that the Denali provides.