The Moonstone Buttress stands out like a shark fin, peeling away from the rest of the buttresses in Whitney Portal. It’s speckled with dikes, black knobs, and sometimes is utterly blank. After a solid attempt on the wall early in the summer with Chris Orozco, I watched our little haulbag and portaledge dangle from the wall for nearly a month, awaiting our return, as thunderstorms pounded the area. We finished up the difficult six-pitch route in late summer, over two days, first reclimbing the initial pitches, then finishing the final three.

Out of all the lines that I have put up in Whitney Portal, this was by far the hardest to equip. From the massive whippers to ripping hooks, the airtime logged was astronomical. A thank-you to Chris for hanging in there and being willing to catch winger after winger. The six rope-stretching pitches went almost entirely free. It’s still waiting for a ground-up free ascent, and a short section of A0 midway up will require an all-points-off dyno. The route is full value and a clean, direct line bottom to top. We called it Moonwalker (IV 5.12 A0), in reference to the wild climbing along a small handrail just above a massive crescent-shaped roof.