The Cirque of the Sun is a small hanging valley just south of the Monolith cirque and just north of the Cirque of the Moon. In recent years, several new routes have been done on a large west-and north-facing formation, dubbed Resolute Buttress by the first documented party to climb it, via the route Thunder Child (7 pitches, 5.11; see AAJ 2014). 

In 2018, Jonathan Awerbuch and Jeff Woodward climbed Icarus (950’, 9 pitches, 5.11+), a sustained route with quality crack climbing on what they called “among the best alpine rock we’ve ever found.” They found an old piton on pitch eight, but believe most of the route is new. Awerbuch and Woodward returned in July 2020 to climb the route completely free.

In 2020, two new routes were climbed on the buttress. In early August, Steph Williams and Drew Lovell completed Campion Cracks (1,400’ climbing distance, 10 pitches, 5.10a), which follows an obvious sweeping ramp to the right of Icarus.  

In September, Andy Constantino and Michael Goodhue climbed Solar Winds (500’, 4 pitches, 5.9+) on the buttress’ north face, a quarter mile to the left of Icarus. They said the climb was a good half-day outing with some splitter cracks. 

— Andy Anderson, with information from Mountain Project and Steph Williams