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. 

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 then passed back through Zion to wade/hike The Narrows and climb Shune's Buttress.] 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.