Balance Climb 9  5.6

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Type:  Trad, 2 pitches, 160 feet Consensus:  5.6 [details] FA:  Season:  All Year Submitted By:  Davis13au on Mar 23, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (6) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Looking up the first pitch of #9. This is a...

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Description 

Starts at the #9 the Army conveniently painted on the rock. Climb up and over a small roof then straight up using all kinds of holds and smears. I believe the first pitch ends when you hit the right end of the army cable. You can follow the cable down a bit and then rap down. We choose to push #9 all the way to the top of the main wall. There is a belay station (two bolts) just to the right of the end of the cable. From there you start the second pitch that follows the water stain towards the right of the main overhang.

You will run into a good size bulge towards the top and you can go left and pick up the cable that runs to the top of the Main Overhang or you can go straight up over the bulge which is way more interesting at that height.

After the bulge you will be right where the cable takes a sharp left up the right side of the main overhang. You can continue on up the right side of the main overhang and belay from on top. You can belay from the cable below but it's not as comfortable as on top.

It's a fun long route. Nothing to tough but the bulge on the first pitch and using the bulge on the second pitch make it better. You could really get crazy and use the head wall or get out on the main overhang to finish instead of following the cable. This would make the end tons tougher. Overall it's a good route to practice leading multi pitch and placing pro.

Location 

Starts directly in front of the #9 stenciled on the main wall. It's in the middle of the main wall to the right of the main overhang when you look up.

Protection 

Used a standard set of nuts and one pink and one brown tri cam. Some short slings are good for extending out from under the bulges.

Photos of Balance Climb 9 Slideshow

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Looking up the shorter second pitch of #9 fr...	Looking north (or so) from the belay point at the ...	Jon finishing up the last little bit on top of the...