Zion Canyon new rock climb by Jeremy Collins and Jarod Sickler

The most famous rock climb in Zion National Park, the Jeff Lowe and Mike Weiss 1971 ultra classic Moonlight Buttress, has a new neighbour: Moonshadow. A 300m route was established to the right of Moonlight over the last few months by Jeremy Collins and Jarod Sickler and now goes all free at 5.11b with the exciting crux right at the very end.

Like many routes in the canyon, it provides both brilliant and loose rock. Bolts were placed where necessary by Collins and Sickler during the first ascent but a full rack is required. After the free ascent the climber, artist and director Collins stated "I couldn’t be more pleased to open this route in one of my favorite places."

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In 1971 a young Jeff Lowe and Mike Weiss climbed the prominent center feature in this pic and called it “Moonlight Buttress”. It became one of the most sought after routes in the world. Today after much effort my partner @jarodsickler and I finished the red line to the right and called it Moonshadow. It goes at 5.11b and is around 1100 feet tall. I couldn’t be more pleased to open this route in one of my favorite places. Story to come.

A post shared by Jeremy Collins (@jer.collins) on Apr 8, 2019 at 9:50pm PDT