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.