Angel’s Landing is arguably the best-known landmark in southern Utah’s Zion National Park. It’s a striking mountain with a few dead vertical sides nearly a thousand feet tall. There is a trail that goes up the side, but these pics are from an ascent Lee and I did of the route Prodigal Sun (V 5.8 C2, 900′) back in 2009. I could have sworn that I’d posted these photos here already, but better late than never, right?
We drove down to Zion from Provo, climbed and fixed a couple pitches, camped outside of the park, and then climbed the rest of the route the next day. I led all the pitches and the ascent went smoothly. We had a great time.
Most of the photos below aren’t amazing, but they give a good idea of what the route is like.
Photo of the side of Angels Landing that Prodigal Sun is on. The yellow line is roughly where Prodigal Sun goes up.
Lee wading across the Virgin River to the base of the wall
Lee’s brother Mark had planned to take some pictures of us while we climbed. He arrived at the base of the route before we did and started up the first pitch before we got there to get some aid practice in. There’s a small yellow arrow pointing to Mark near the bottom-right corner of the photo.
Mark on pitch 1. He lowered off when we arrived and then I started up.
Me racking up
Looking down from the top of pitch 1
Me starting up pitch 2
Lee cleaning pitch 2
Lee
Me starting up pitch 4
Me starting up pitch 5
Me loaded down just off of the belay
Looking straight down from one of the upper pitches. Steep!
Looking up the neat thin crack of one of the upper pitches (pitch 5, I think)
A ledge! I think this was one of the last adventures these shoes went on.
A hook move
Looking up Zion Canyon. It’s definitely one of the more spectacular climbing areas out there. The famous Moonlight Buttress is the sunlit buttress on the left side of the canyon, just left of center. Spaceshot, another famous climb, is just right of center and just left of the shaded, right-facing corner.
Me about to start up pitch 7 or 8
Looking down from one of the last pitches. There are bolts here next to this corner to protect the soft sandstone from repeated piton scarring
A fantastic photo taken by Mark. I’m leading pitch 8 (I think), which was the last steep pitch.
Lee and me on top. The route route goes up the face behind me and to the right).