Moonlight Buttress  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Page Views:  166,531. Good page? (1 like)    Administrators:  Andrew Gram, Perin Blanchard, grk10vq, Tom Erickson 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  Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu 84° | 55° 81° | 55° 86° | 61° 90° | 57° 88° | 59°

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 This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. 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 5.11 C1  UT : Zion National Park : Moonlight Buttress

This route is located in the recess to the left of Moonlight and shares that route's first pitch and a half. It breaks out left at this point and follows an interesting line of corners, flakes and face climbing with a cool, steep jamming pitch as the finale.This is a fun route that doesn't get as much traffic as the surrounding trade routes. Aiding the whole route would probably warrant a slightly harder rating (C2ish?). This route is best enjoyed as a long free climb with the occasiona...[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!	Moonlight Buttress