I had climbed in Zion only once, in
2014 (click link for trip report). On this trip my partner Dow and I climbed a few moderate multipitch routes and a variety of other "cragging" routes. Ever since that trip I had my eye on a bigger route in Zion.
The Moonlight Buttress was at the top of the list.
The Moonlight Buttress is one of the most popular aid climbs in Zion, and, as a free climb, is noted as one of the most spectacular sandstone climbs in the world.
The Moonlight Buttress climbs the namesake feature, a prow of rock that juts out from the wall behind it, via a crack that extends for 1000 feet from base to summit and never widens to more than an inch or two.
The Moonlight Buttress is a sustained journey with pitch after pitch of difficult splitters and corners, a few enjoyable face climbing sections, fantastic exposure, and great belay ledges.
First freed in 1992 by Peter Croft & Johnny Woodward, the route was originally rated 5.13b. That rating has since settled to 5.12c, but even this reflects the overall effort of the climb and not the single hardest moves on the route. This has been evidenced by a number of onsights over the past few years, and most recently, Alex Honnold's free solo of the route in an astonishing 1 hour and 23 minutes.
The route gets sun at around 9 AM and goes into the shade late in the afternoon. The route can be rapped entirely with a 70m rope except for the second-to-last rappel directly down the face (not following the route). A Beal Escaper, a tag line, or some creativity can help here. The quickest descent from the top is to walk off via the Angel's Landing trail.
I finally got the opportunity to climb
The Moonlight Buttress in Spring 2025, with friend and climbing partner Nate Beckwith. The initial plan for my trip had been to join Nate in Indian Creek for three midweek days of climbing, but with the splitter desert weather and both of our abilities to work from the road on our Starlinks, the trip extended....into six weeks. [I had left my home in Estes Park on what I planned to just be three days in the Creek before returning home. It ended up being a six week climbing road trip involving sandstone splitters in
Indian Creek, the uber-classic
Moonlight Buttress in Zion (this page); the steep limestone of
Lime Kiln Canyon; the renowned overhanging limestone at
Clear Light Cave; big routes in Red Rocks like
Rainbow Wall and
Resolution Arete and
Texas Hold'Em as well as
several days of sport climbing in Calico Hills and Calico Basin; and ....] The first part of the extension was Zion. I dropped a hint about
The Moonlight Buttress. With several sections of 5.12, I knew
The Moonlight Buttress would be a challenge for me whenever I was put on the sharp end, but the completely protectable (i.e. aidable) nature of the route made it a feasible objective. Nate had climbed the route before (four times with two free ascents together covering redpoint leads of all pitches (2013, 2015), one ascent with one fall (2011), and a 7 hr (c2c) ascent as an aid climb in 1996), but was willing to climb it again. This would be his fifth ground-up ascent. It must be a good route, eh?
Due to the difficulty of the route and the ability to access it top-down, our initial plan had been to drop a fixed rope on the route and toprope solo it to work out the crux sections, and then a couple of days later go for it from below. But then the weather looked like it was going to give us only one day, so we decided to just go for it ground-up. Roughly, Nate led the first half of the route (Pitches 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7) while I led the second half of the route (Pitches 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11). On the crux sections of my 5.12 pitches, I resorted to a bit more C1 than I would have hoped, but I free climbed when I felt inspired. We climbed in fix-and-follow method and hauled. We went by the rack posted on mountainproject. There was one other party on the route (John and Mike) who started later than us and inched up on us by the final pitch, but kindly let us keep our lead. We topped out in the daylight but hit dark midway down the Angel's Landing descent. It was a phenomenal day. I would love to come back and re-climb this route. Perhaps after dropping a fixed rope on the route to work out the crux sections.
Given our last minute change of plans, Nate and I had not gotten an early entry permit so that we could drive into the park before the shuttles started and have a car waiting for us when we finished. So we were forced to rely on the shuttle system to get us to and from the route. The first shuttle left the visitor center at 7am, and the last shuttle drove out at 7:15pm. So we ended up with a slightly later start than we would have wished (starting up the route at 8:40am) and ended up resigned to a 4.5 mile road walk back into town because we missed the last shuttle. (Fortunately, a mile into our road walk, a nice Indian couple gave us a ride - the guy had just done the road walk himself and driven back up to pick up his wife who had chosen to sit at the Zion Lodge while he walked back to town to get the car, so he was happy to relieve us of the same thing).
The following gives time stats and pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb. What a great day! Thanks Nate for doing this route a fifth time.
