Sunlight Buttress

Sunlight Buttress is a fine Zion free climbing route and is described in the book Fifty Favorite Climbs where it is listed as Charlie Fowler's favorite climb.

I didn't think it was as good as many of the trade free routes in Zion canyon proper. That being said, it's a great route to do, particularly after you've done the classics in Zion. It can be free climbed at 5.11b or done with some aid at 5.8 C1.

If you're going to do this route in a day, you will probably want to free most of the route or at least French free the difficult sections.
A good topo is available in the Fifty Favorite Climbs book as well as at the Zion Visitor Center.

The climbing is very straight forward with a number of pitches featuring bolts or drilled angles to protect face climbing features. Some of the face climbing is made more difficult due to fragile rock, but it's the desert so what do you expect?

I'll keep the pitch-by-pitch description to a minimum as it's easy to follow on a topo.

Pitches 1 and 2 are easy to link. Pitch 3 climbs the obvious right-facing corner and pitch 4 climbs the face with bolts/angles and some fixed gear. For pitch 5, traverse left from the belay and ascend a short corner to a ledge. From the ledge a crack cuts up and right. You may want to back clean gear from the short corner to prevent rope drag. At the top of pitch 5 is a big ledge.

Pitch 6 is the route's crux, 5.11 face climbing protected by bolts/angles. You can connect pitch 6 with pitch 7 which is probably preferable because then you belay at a large ledge, rather than a hanging belay.

Pitch 8 has a couple of variations. You climb underneath a loose, junky roof. If you stay low, it's easier than staying high. From there you climb into a left-facing corner to another large ledge where the belay anchors are out left.

Pitch 9, the final pitch, seems to be somewhat devious and not totally obvious. We didn't do it so I can't say with certainty which crack it is. There are a number of options that exist and we couldn't decide which one was best. None of the options looked super appealing and we were under the impression that many parties skipped the last pitch or two as the rock quality seems to deteriorate. You're supposed to traverse right to a fixed bolt or pin and into a left-facing corner.

Double set of cams to #4 Camalot and a set of stoppers. Runners and two ropes. It's also been recommended to bring a Chouinard hook for aid climbing between bolts on the crux sixth pitch.

Sunlight Buttress is located on the south-southeast face of Paria Point, looking into the canyon created by the South Fork of Taylor Creek.

To approach, hike up the South Fork trail that's across the road from the parking lot. Go well past Sunlight Buttress and pick your way up the hillside, encountering some third and fourth class scrambling close to the wall. Look for a faint climbers' trail although there appear to be a few trails that will work.

Once at the wall, traverse left to the top of a prominent ridge of rock that meets the wall and goes down to the canyon floor. If you can't hike along the wall anymore, then you're at the start of the route. Slings and drilled angles will also mark the start of the route.

To descend the route, rappel the route with double ropes. You may want to have a knife and some expendable slings to replace worn anchor material.