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Balance Beam

5.11a, Sport, 65 ft (20 m),  Avg: 3.5 from 148 votes
FA: John Bronaugh 2004
Kentucky > Red River Gorge > (PMRP) Pendergr… > Sore Heel Hollow > Playground

Description

Easy slab section for the first half of the climb leads to tricky 5.11 slab moves.

Location

Slabby section of the playground wall, just to the right of the crack climb in the dihedral(Octopus tag)

Protection

bolts

Description

Easy slab section for the first half of the climb leads to tricky 5.11 slab moves.

Location

Slabby section of the playground wall, just to the right of the crack climb in the dihedral(Octopus tag)

Protection

bolts

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Balance Beam
[Hide Photo] Balance Beam
Nearing the top. Nearly the whole route is in view, sans the bottom few feet.
[Hide Photo] Nearing the top. Nearly the whole route is in view, sans the bottom few feet.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Gif Zafred
Pittsburgh, PA
[Hide Comment] Great slab climb that is very atypical of the Red. Crux is at the top! Very fun and worth doing. Apr 28, 2011
charris
  5.11a
[Hide Comment] I had a lot of fun on this route and I hate slab climbing. It is very close to a 5.7 trad route to the left and I think the lines for these two climbs intersect for at least a move or two... or maybe I was off route. I never felt off route anyways and there were plenty of hard slab moves I still had to do.

Also, we were avoiding a death centipede while climbing this. My friend swears it had fangs, so lookout. Sep 30, 2012
none none
 
[Hide Comment] Great route that keeps you on your toes. Good rests between technical slab sequences. Definitely worth doing! Nov 7, 2016
Randy Folkenberg
College Place, WA
[Hide Comment] Onsight Footage: youtube.com/watch?v=agj9WAS… Apr 24, 2021
Lauren Errichiello
Milwaukee, WI
  5.11a
[Hide Comment] I personally do not think you need to be near the 5.7 trad route to keep this at 5.11 imo. I climbed it first and got no where near the 5.7 route/chimney. My partner went next and noticed a huge jug near the chimney that made it easy to avoid the crux (or at least one of them). Then I looked at comments where people bail into the chimney.... I think that ruins the spirit of the route but that's just me. Apr 21, 2026