Moonlight Buttress  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Page Views:  131,035. Good page? (1 like)    Administrators:  Andrew Gram, Perin Blanchard, grk10vq Submitted By:  Casey Bernal on Jun 5, 2002 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event

Seasonal Raptor Closures MORE INFO >>> The following cliffs will be closed to climbing beginning March 1, 2012: Angels Landing, Cable Mountain, The Great White Throne (beyond single- and double-pitched climbs), Isaac (in Court of the Patriarchs), The Sentinel, Mountain of the Sun, North Twin Brother, Tunnel Wall, The East Temple, Mount Spry, The Streaked Wall, Mount Kinesava, and the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek. All other cliffs will remain open to climbing. See www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/2012-climbing-closures-announced.h>>> for more info Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

BETA PHOTO

Description 

Moonlight Buttress is the obvious buttress on the left just after Angel's Landing. It resembles a huge pillar resting against the wall. The wall faces almost due east.

The most common route on the wall is the The Moonlight Buttress (Clean Aid) that takes a line straight up the middle (the Grand Dihedral is obvious from the road).

At the base, be careful as the 3rd class ledges are easy to climb on but a tumble down could be serious.

There is a ledge after P5 of the Lowe/Weiss route that makes a great bivy if you have a portaledge. The descent is a casual hike down a paved path. Once you top out, hike straight back and you cannot miss the path. The path is most exciting (yes, seriously) path I have ever been on. Try to save some daylight to enjoy the hike down. It would be worthy of hiking by itself. The descent is about 3 miles down.

—Casey Bernal

Getting There 

You can take the shuttle to the Big Bend stop (same as Prodigal Sun), or if you have a cool driver they will drop you off right in front of the trailhead. From the shuttle stop, jog up the road about 100 yards to the trailhead. There are trail markers posted to follow. To cross the creek, look for a wide area with islands, and you can cross with only getting your ankles wet. The approach takes maybe 30 minutes.

Descent 

The Angel's Landing trail.

The Classics

Featured Route For Moonlight Buttress

Sheer Lunacy (Free) 5.12b  UT : Zion National Park : Moonlight Buttress

Sheer Lunacy is a great, fairly mellow "big" wall climb in Zion, located just left of the much more popular Moonlight Buttress. It offers enjoyable climbing on every pitch and the cruxes are fairly brief; though it's just as long as its neighbor, it is much less tiring of a day.P1: Begin as for Moonlight Buttress by climbing a long 5.7/5.8 groove system to a ledge with a tree. Belay here.P2: Instead of moving right and into Moonlight's 5.10c pitch, head straight up a vegetated, right...[more]   Browse More Classics in UT

Photos of Moonlight Buttress Slideshow

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Moonlight	climbers on moonlight butress,photo taken from top...	Unknown Party on Moonlight. Photo: Doug Davis
Unknown Party on Moonlight. Photo: Doug Davis.	Moonlight Buttress	Moonlight Buttress
BETA PHOTO: moonlight buttress area topo	Watch out!	Moonlight Buttress from the road.
Several parties on Moonlight Buttress (3/23/10).	What a beauty!