Ascent Notes for: Lunar Ecstacy IV 5.9 C2+ - A2+ Average Rating : 4.33/5

third pitch was really fun, don't aid it.

we did the jarret finish and it was great. i did not think the rock was that bad, and the last bolt keeps you thinking.

Lunar Ecstacy V 5.9 C2+
Moonlight Buttress
ZION N.P., UT

Climbed by Ben Banks and Richard Heinrich/SPIKE
09/27/02 - 09/29/02

Drive to Zion:
Ben picked me up at 6:00am Wed. morning at my house in Alta Loma,
CA. We jumped on the I15 Fwy. heading towards Las Vegas on our
way to Zion, UT. Made it to Vegas, NV in 3 1/2 hours !!! Stopped
in St. George so Ben could pick up about 15' of 8mm cord for YATES
FAT SACK load release system and a couple locking carabiners.
Pulled into Zion visitors center at around 1:00pm. Ben asked the
attendant at the entrance for a current weather report, she said
"no rain". When Ben & I looked at the internet for a weather before
we left it said "maybe 10% for Wed." It was a little overcast but
not dark clouds. The parking lot was FULL! While Ben circled the
parking lot looking for a space, I walked over and got our climbing
permit --- $5.00 We finally got a parking space, but I had to ask
people as they left the vistor center if they were leaving and follow
them out plus guard the parking space until Ben could get around to it!
Most dangerous part of the trip.

Getting to the base of the climb:
We loaded up our 2 pigs a YATES FAT SACK and a small FISH Atom Smasher.
6 gallons of water and an A5 portaledge w/rain fly. Ben has a new
Metolius Bomb Shelter double portaledge, but is still waiting for a
rain fly! We caught the shuttle bus & told the driver to drop use off
at Moonlight Buttress. We got in the second shuttle bus trailer because
the front one was pretty full. The shuttle bus driver stopped at Big
Bend which is the drop off for Prodigal Son and WAS suppose to stop about
a 1/4 of a mile up the road to let us off for Moonlight Buttress --- he
forgot! I went up to the camera/speaker and tried to get the drivers
attention with no success. We road the shuttle bus to the next stop
which is the last stop on the loop. We got off that shuttle bus and
climbed on a bus that was just taking off/heading back down. We got into
the shuttle with the driver to insure we got dropped off in the correct
spot. The driver of the second bus was an older guy. He said earlier
in the week that climbers were on both Lunar Ecstacy and Moonlight
Buttress. But today NO ONE was on our route or Moonlight Buttress. He
dropped us off and said he would keep an eye on us. The approach to
Moonlight Buttress is short and easy. The Virgin River was very low,
water was only 1 1/2' deep, an easy crossing. After crossing the stream
it took us 15 minutes to reach the base of the climb.

P1 - 09/25/02 Wednesday afternoon - 200' 5.8 (Original Start)
When I did Moonlight Buttress with Scott D. I did the original start P1
5.8 so we decided that Ben would do the odd pitches and I would do the
even pitches. We got our climbing gear on, repacked the pigs and got them
up on a ledge about 15' above the illegal bivy. We moved over to the original
start and Ben took off in his climbing shoes. He trailed an 8mm 60 meter
zipline. Ben didn't place any protection on the 3rd class traverse to the
start of the 5.8 section. At the start of the 5.8 section Ben pulled both
the leadline and zipline and retossed both. He also found an HB Brass #6
offset nut on the ledge after he tossed the ropes --- booty. The pitch does
take every inch of a 60 meter rope. Ben did a great job on this pitch and
free climbed the whole pitch. It took only 2 tosses of the zipline to get it
down to me. I connected the Pro-Traxion and static haulline to the zipline
and Ben pulled it up. At the top of P1 we moved the pigs about 20' to the
right of the anchors as per the topos recommendation.

P2 - 120' C1 5.6
I took off on P2 and the first 25' is free climbing until you get below a small
roof. I placed an alien and then a #1 Lowe Ball under the roof to work myself
out and around the right side of the roof. The rest of the pitch was C1 straight
up to a huge ledge. The 5.6 moves were easy, but watch out what you pull on,
loose blocks. I was going to try and link P2 and P3, but rope drag was bad. So
I hauled up to P2 and Ben cleaned. The sun was starting to go down but our goal
was to bivy at the top of P3.

P3 - 50' C1 5.7
P3 is short, only 50', but is in a very tight and awkward dihedral. Ben free
climbed about 1/3 of the pitch stemming the 5.7 section. Ben turned his head
lamp on when he started aiding. I finally turned on my headlamp so I could watch
his progress. About 3/4 the way up the pitch he made a hook move. As it got
really dark I thought I saw some lightening flashes but assumed it was my eyes
playing tricks on me. I didn't hear any thunder, but I also couldn't see any
stars. A little later I saw more lightening and mentioned it to Ben who was
focused on his climb. He said it was probably tourists taking flash photos.
When rain drops started to hit us we both agreed it was lightening. When we
got to the top of P3 it was raining on and off with lightening but the storm
seemed to be moving away from us. The ledge at the top of P3 is pretty good.
We set up the A5 portaledge with the rain fly and deployed it. We decided to
bivy and see what the weather looked like in the morning. The rain was sporadic
and the lightening diminished. Compared to the storm I went through earlier in
the year when I was on Moonlight Buttress, this was nothing. I knew in the
morning we would see blue skys.

P4 - 09/26/02 Thursday - 185' C1+ 5.9 Half-Moon Traverse (loose block, mantle)
Thursday morning at 6:00am I woke to a clear sky. The goal for the day was to
bivy at the top of P8. This is the second wall I have climbed with Ben, so we
work pretty good as a team. We broke the portaledge down, ate a quick breakfast
and I was climbing by 7:00am. P4 is the longest aid pitch on the route and the 5.9
mantel was on my mind. The 5.9 mantle comes up pretty quick, it wasn't that bad,
the ledge you mantle on is flat and has an edge you can get a good crimp on. So
you mantle, stand up and grab the base of a small bush/tree. I girth hitched the
base of the bush with a hero loop and used it as my next piece. I also used the
bush to stand on. A couple more pieces of gear and you make some free moves onto
a sloping ledge system. I found the the free moves up onto this sandy/sloping
ledge system a little more scary than the mantle down below. I moved up and right
to a nice bolt, clipped it and then flipped the ropes over the ledge. Ben will
take a little swing when he cleans the last piece before the free moves. From
here you can look up and see the first bolt that starts the Half-Moon Traverse.
From here you go up a nice crack until it gets a little thin through the C1+
section to a couple bolts in a row. Then traverse out a little more right using
gear to the last 4 bolts before Farewell Ledge. The last bolt before the ledge
is missing a hanger. I girth hitched it with a hero loop but a cinch rivet hanger
would have been nice. It took me 2 hours to do the pitch. As I hauled the bags,
Ben yelled up "PIGS IN SPACE". The topo says "loose block" at Farewell Ledge,
but it seemed pretty solid to me. I had the zipline stowed in its A5 rope bag
and the staticline ready to be put its bag when Ben arrived at the ledge. I put
the staticline in an A5 rope bag as Ben racked up. We put the leadline in its
own A5 rope bag and Ben was climbing P5 by 10:00am.

P5 - 145' C2 Old A4 Pitch
The first piece of fixed gear off P5 looks scary!!! A 5/8" angle only in about 1/2
way and is bent down. 2 old pieces of webbing are girth hithced to it close to the
wall. Ben clipped both pieces of webbing and gently stepped up on it. The next
piece is a bolt, but is missing a hanger. Before starting the pitch, I dug into
the FISH sub-bag and pulled out some cinch rivet hangers. Ben placed a big fat cinch
rivet hanger that Scott D. had given to me earlier in the year and Ben felt a lot
better. This pitch is an old A4 pitch, 145' long and is now rated C2. Ben did the pitch
under 2 hours. When I cleaned it I took a close look at the 1st pin and it didn't
look good. Below the #3 camalot placement shown on the topo are 2 old RURP's in a row
without wires which validates it was an A4 Pitch at one time. The top of P5 is a sling
belay.

P6 - 120' C2 Alien Leapfrog (airy!)
P6 is called "Alien Leapfrog", its 120' long and is rated C2 with a comment "airy".
This pitch eats up green & blue aliens! All the placements are C1. I think it gets
its C2 rating because you HAVE to RUN it OUT --- and the fall could easily be a 50
footer. Its a mental fear/pucker factor. How far must you go before you find a good
nut placement or before you have to leave one of your blue or green aliens. The topo
said P6 is only 120', but it seemed longer to me. Ben used his YATES WALL LADDERS to
make a seat while he belayed me. The top of P6 really has 4 bolts. 2 newer ones
and 2 old button heads with odd hangers. Hauling the pigs up to the top of P6 was
easy --- they never touched the wall. Its getting late in the afternoon and the
first C2+ pitch is reached.

P7 - 150' C2+ 5.7 The Amoeba Pitch (bat hook, loose)
P7 is called "The Amoeba" pitch and is 150' long with the topo calling out some loose
sections, a bat hook move and 5.7 moves to reach the anchors. I know Ben has been
thinking about this pitch all day. When we were in the parking lot getting our gear
organized a climber walked up and asked us which climb we were going to do. We said
"Lunar Ecstacy", and of course he mentioned P7. He said his friend got freaked out
when he saw "The Amoeba", and he wasn't even leading it, he was cleaning it! Ben
racked up, put his headlamp on and took off on P7. From the start of the route you
can see the first bolt that is below "The Amoeba". Compared to P6 this pitch is lower
angle and the rock takes on a LOOSE/SOFT feel. As Ben leads this pitch sand and dead
grass filters down on me. The gear placements aren't bomber like C2. The C2+ rating
has been reached. Ben yelled down when he was going to make the bat hook move. He
used my special filed down SKY HOOK that looks like a finger. I saw a drawing of it
in Chongo's Big Wall Book, so I made myself one, and Ben said it worked GREAT. It's
starting to get dark as Ben reaches the 5.7 section of the pitch. Ben yells down
"Free Moves" to prepare me to feed rope adequately. Ben is a 5.12 sport climber and
a solid trad climber. After he makes the moves and reaches the belay at the top of
P7 he starts screaming and yelleing about the rating of the free climb section.
I think this was done to release the fear of the last few moves and the tension of
doing a C2+ pitch. Ben yelled down that the 5.7 was 5.10 slab. I cleaned P7 in the
dark with my Black Diamond Moonlight headlamp. When I got to the top of P7 and looked
at the traversing free moves, I was glad Ben did those moves and not me! We had been
climbing for over 12 housrs. I was feeling tired and Ben volunteered to do P8 if I
did P9 in the morning. I agreed.

P8 - 90' C1 5.8 (loose)
P8 begins with some 5.8 moves and getting started is tricky. While Ben was looking
around for an alternate start he found his 2nd piece of booty a Metolius curved nut.
The only way to get up P8 is to make the 5.8 moves on poor sandy/slabby hand
holds/pinches plus iffy smear foot placements. The key to the start of this pitch is
to use the right belay bolt for a left foot hold. The topo says P8 is 90' but it
seemed shorter. Ben did this pitch pretty fast. We were at the top of P8 by 8:30pm.
The night sky was clear and we could see a million stars. No rain tonight. A pin
above the belay made a great place to hang the portaledge from. We turned in early
with only 1 pitch left for tomarrow.

P9 - 09/27/02 Friday - 150' C2+ 5.6 Original Finish (rotten rock, fin/arete)
My watch alarm went off at 5:30am but I slept in until 6:00am before getting up. WOW,
the exposure was great. Last night we topped out in the dark and set everything up
by headlamp. Anything below the bivy ledge was just darkness the night before, but
in the morning everything became crystal clear --- we made a lot of progress
the day before. It was cooler than the previous night because of no cloud cover and
the morning was a little nippy. I was thinking about the alternate finish. The "Jarrett
Finish" is only 110' and rated C1, but looking at the ledge you would have to
drag/carry the haul bags on to get to the start of the pitch would create an exposured
and dangerous situation. So we broke down the portaledge for the last time and packed
the pigs. Up and far right of the belay you can see 2 new bolts. We didn't use them.
They may have been placed for an alternate belay or for a portaledge. The first few
free moves traverse off right from the belay. Some free moves in the 5.6 range get
you up to a stance were you can place a yellow alien. From here you can stand up on
the top of a semi-pointy block to place your first piece in the start of the C2 section.
From here you can see the 5.6 moves higher up but not the bolt shown on the topo. As
you work your way up to the 5.6 section the rock does get ROTTEN. It is very soft and
crumbles in your hand. The 5.6 section has a great hand hold about 1/3rd of the way
through the diagonal traverse. I was able to place a red alien back deep inside the
hand hold. The 5.6 section ends at a bomber bolt! At this point I used the zipline to
bring up some more medium length draws and the rest of our aliens. Up a nice crack that
take blue and green aliens. At the top of the crack you make an easy mantle onto a
small ledge and look up at the dark fin/arete to your right. Above your head is a small
roof and the topo specifies rotten rock! Looking up at it, from below, it looks loose.
So I worked my way up the fin/arete by placing pieces inside the fin and walking up the
arete. This allowed me to get high enough to place 4 pieces just above the roof. 3 cams
and a nut, all within 2 feet of each other. 2 of the cams were bomber, if you consider
anything in rotten rock as bomber. The nut and the higher cam were just OK, I placed
them just to see if I could. From here I could see a fixed pin near the finish of the
route. Maybe because how the morning sun was hitting it, but it looked like a GIANT BONG.
I yelled down to Ben that there was a HUGE FIXED BONG were the topo designated a fixed
piece. I had cleaned all the pieces I used in the back side of the arete because of rope
drag and to clean them would have been a pain for Ben. The only thing between me and the
ledge I mantled onto earlier were the grouped 4 pieces in rotten rock. I high stepped
looking for a good placement --- nothing solid --- maybe some iffy hook moves. If a piece
popped before I clipped the pin, the 4 pieces in the rotten rock probably wouldn't hold
the fall. I would probably break both legs after hitting the ledge and then roll off it for
another 15'until the piece I placed at base of the ledge stopped my fall. Maybe not the
best "style" but out came the cheater stick and I clipped the fixed pin. When I got to the
fixed pin it wasn't a BONG, it was your basic 1/2" angle! A free move after the pin placed
me on the summit. I recognized the summit, Lunar Ecstacy and Moonlight Buttress end at the
same trees. About 15' to the right of Lunar Ecstacy is the finish for Moonlight Buttress.
Be careful when you summit, a lot of loose rocks/blocks are near the edge. About 20' from
the edge is a nice sized tree. I placed both my aiders around the base of the tree and
fixed the leadline using 2 lockers. I rapped a cordelette around the tree higher up to make
hauling easier. I pulled up the static haul line and Pro-Traxion using the zipline. After
setting up the haul and pulled in all the slack line I started to relax, I was on the summit!
The hauling wasn't that bad. The bags got stuck twice under the 2 small
roofs but Ben got them moving as he cleaned. The bags getting stuck gave me time to rest
and enjoy the summit along with the tourists walking along the rim. Ben made it to the top
and we shook hands, another successful climb as a team. We took a couple summit photos,
sorted our gear, re-packed the pigs, emptied a gallon of water we didn't use and started
hiking down to the shuttle bus. We made it down to the shuttle bus in under an hour.
Back at the visitors center we washed up in the bathrooms and put on clean clothes. We
stopped in St. George for some hot food and cold drinks. I was back home by 8:00pm,
Ben had another hour and half of driving to get into LA. Zion is a beautiful place, Ben
and I are thinking of an early winter ascent of Space Shot --- you don't have to cross the
Virgin River :)

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Very cool line for my fist wall.
Definantly recomended.

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Great route! Ben took a whip off the weird flake pitch - in the dark...exciting. Clean ascent.

This route is good stuff. I didn't use any hooks, or ball nuts. I used a ton of yellow h.b.'s along with the range of h.b.'s. Also bring a bunch of blue metolious and yellow metolious. Another trick, is TRANGO stoppers. They work good here also. I had a toothache, so I didn't sleep very much on this route. The crux was above the aomeba. Some free moves to a "trust in god" tiny nut placement. I would probably rate this C2 or maybe C2+. Definately do the "jarret finish." I haven't done the original dihedral finish, but I heard it's lame