Arriving late in Zion National Park, the full moon hinted at the grandure of the surrounding scenery, picked out in monochrome,

… delaying the full sensory overload of vivid orange and red rock until the morning.

I’d visited this magical spot as a part of the original Rockaroundtheworld Big Trip, so knew what to expect, but almost 20 years later it remains a stunning vista.

On that trip we’d taken a whistle-stop tour through the great National Parks of SW Utah (Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, and Grand Canyon) and managed a few “taster” routes consistent with the schedule and having young children, sewing the seeds of many “Ones To Come Back 4” and the agenda for this present trip.

Regardless of that recce, Moonlight Buttress would have made it onto my To Do list, first via tales of Andy’s epic solo aid ascent, then later with Honold’s free solo (a forerunner to The Free Solo) as well as a televised extravaganza featuring Andy K and a daytime TV presenter. It’s a striking line up a dominant feature in a sea of impressive rock – a “must do”. Having said that, in the intervening years it has become more established as a free route (at 5.12c rather than 5.8 / C1 aid) and tensions have arisen over whether it should be “preserved” for the purer style. Strong views either way litter the Internet, with little middle ground, but perhaps a compromise position is that if you are going for an aid ascent you should go in a day, without the paraphernalia of ledges and haul bags, use cams rather than wires where possible (and certainly not hooks) without bounce testing them (they’re all pretty bomber) and of course stay away if it’s wet. That was our approach anyway.

First stop was the Visitor Centre to get a permit from the Wilderness Ranger to climb MB the following day. We were warned of a 50% chance of rain, and promised to equip ourselves appropriately and bail if it got wet (though I suppose as a “glass half full” person I translated this as “50% chance of no rain”!) There was no problem with the permit (introduced to stop overcrowding) as I think we were the only climbers in the Park – “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and all that.

It was still 40C although forecasted to cool down considerably but with increasing chances of precipitation. Hopefully we’d catch a Goldilocks spot in the middle. Top tip – you can also get a yellow parking permit if you are planning on doing a wall in a day, which allows you to drive into the main Canyon before 6am (otherwise all private vehicles are banned in favour of the excellent free every-four-minutes shuttle bus). This makes for an earlier start, less waiting for buses, and would be a godsend if you got down after the last bus at 8.15pm avoiding the 5 miles uphill walk!

Whilst this permit business might all seem like a bureaucratic faff (especially when you read the instructions on the nps website) the actual reality is pretty straightforward and the ranger (a climber) couldn’t have been more friendly or helpful. She also was kind enough to suggest a possible shady option for a short route for the afternoon: The Headache.

First task was to recce the approach – we’d be doing this in the dark and it also involves a river crossing. This turns out to be no problem – no more than knee-deep (in September) and the path is fairly easy to find (and there’s a trace on the Mountain Project app to help) but better safe than sorry. I also reccied the approach to Prodigal Sun – and this would have been a bugger to find in the dark. See next post.

As an added bonus for a memorable day, three American Condors entertained us with their constant soaring patrols – the resident pair had successfully bred and the now-juvenile (something like the 480th Condor in the USA) was now learning the ropes (the nearby Prodigal Sun was banned for climbing until 1st August to protect the nest). Magnificent creatures!

On to The Headache, a highly regarded 4* 5.10 with almost roadside access from just before the road tunnel. Bill came up with the very sensible idea that we should take the opportunity for a bit of an aid refresher (no aid climbing since North America Wall in 2018) and we’d both upgraded to single-step adjustable aiders since then so would need to dial back in. It’s a great route and I will hopefully come back to climb it properly sometime, but the aid refresher was invaluable as it surely saved a load of time on MB when we’d be potentially up against the clock for possible rain, benightment or missing the shuttle… 200ft in almost 3 hours wasn’t at all impressive (and didn’t bode well for 1,000ft the next day) but we ironed out a few wrinkles and were confident (hopeful?) of picking up speed on MB.

Up at 4.30am for a moonlit breakfast ahead Moonlight Buttress,

at the parking lot for 5.30am and roped up ready to go at 6.30am.

The first 5.7 free pitch, climbed entirely by headtorch, turned out to be by far the scariest of the day – sandy smears and sketchy gear (probably a breeze in daylight). The following aid / free roof / crack and bolt ladder pitches went without too much drama…

… and by 9 we were beneath pitch 4, the stunning Great Dihedral – almost a full 200ft of sustained C1 – every placement bomber. I left a purple link-cam clipped into each aider and simply leapfrogged my way up for 80% of the placements, placing the occasional protection every 20ft or so. Here’s the view down.

Pitch 5 is a bit sketchier, with a tricky chimney section around 2/3 height, but what I’m guessing is a fairly recent bolt takes the sting out of the wide.

Beyond that, there’s a fairly continuous and steadier crack pretty much to the top for the remaining 4 pitches (default cam now upped to green) and we topped out around 6, less than 12 hours since starting to climb…

and whizzed down Walters Wiggles to get down in oodles of time to get the one-stop shuttle ride back to the car at Big Bend.

Celebratory beers were clearly in order, and the Zion Brewery didn’t disappoint – Fish Tacos also recommended!

Not a hint of rain all day, not a single other climber in the canyon, and not a foot wrong from start to finish – maybe Episode 13 isn’t going to be so unlucky after all!