Northeast Buttress, Angels Landing IV 5.10+

Zion National Park, Utah, USA

Currently 4.0/5

Avg time to climb route: 1 day

Approach time: 30 minutes

Descent time: 45 minutes

Number of pitches: 8

Height of route: 1400’ on routes, 1500’ total

Overview

FA: Randy Aton, Mark Austin, and Phil Haney, 1981. FFA: Conrad Anker and John Middendorf 1991?
A Zion Classic! Climb the ridge that separates the north face and east face of Angels Landing. There are many start options. Climb any number of cracks that lead directly to Pitch 1, which starts off the saddle between The Organ and Angels Landing. The recommended approach is to scramble up a meandering ramp system on the south face of the Organ. See the next section for a route description of the approach scramble. The Northeast Buttress has a traverse on Pitch 5 or 6, (depending on how you decide to break up the pitches), which is notorious for getting parties off route. On this pitch, face climb on nice edges out a roof to a left-facing corner with a bolt. Reach a ledge at the top of the corner and traverse left. Keep going left out and around an arête to an improbable looking face, continue out onto the face and up to the corner system that leads to the top of the formation. Just before the arête on the traverse, you will be tempted to climb up to a right-facing corner system that also goes to the top. This corner was climbed to the top in 2001 or 2002, and is rumored to have gone free. However this crack system doesn’t have the quality of climbing on the upper part of the original route. This is a committing adventure: expect wild climbing (even for Zion) and few fixed anchors. Don’t attempt this route if you don’t think you can do it in a day; descending the route could be tricky and expensive.

Climber Beta on Northeast Buttress