From the parking lot of the Junior Williamson Rest Area in Slade, turn left (north) on KY 11, drive 0.1 miles under the Mountain Parkway overpass to a "T" intersection with KY 15. Turn left (east) and continue for 1.5 miles, then turn right (north) on KY 77. This highway is also known as "Nada Tunnel Road", and you may see a street sign so designated at this intersection. Drive 4.4 miles through the tiny town of Nada, through the tunnel, and over the steel bridge (stay right after you cross the steel bridge) to the intersection with KY 715. KY 77 curves left near an old barn while KY 715 continues straight. Stay on KY 715 (do not take the curve to the left) for about 7.8 miles and around a sharp bend to the left. About .5 miles past the sharp bend you will see a large pulloff on your left. Park in the pulloff and hike back towards the bridge for about 300 feet and look for a trail on the on the left(north) side of the road. Take the trail up to the wall. An alternate approach from the Rest Area in slade is to jump back on Mountain Parkway and head east to the next exit (Exit 40). Turn right off the exit on KY 15 and drive 0.7 miles through the town of Pineville. Turn right onto 715 and drive 5.6 miles along the road. Be sure to stay on the road when it takes a hairpin turn to the right or you will end up at the Sky Bridge Ridge parking area for the tourist trail. After the sharp turn to the right and then left, the road will head sharply downhill passing a large pulloff on your right (Funk Rock City). When the road levels out you will see another pulloff on your right. That is the parking for Eastern and Western Sky Bridge Ridge.

Wall Sun: Unknown

Click the column heads to sort. Hold shift to sort on multiple columns.

Route	Spray	Name	Type	Grade	User Stars	Length	Picture
0 1	-1	No Return	Trad	15 5.9+	4.17 (47)	100 100ft	1
1 2	-1	Commencement	Sport	27 5.11c	3.65 (46)	90 90ft	0
2 3	-1	Corpus Delicti	Sport	28 5.11d	3.47 (19)	70 70ft	1
3 4	-1	Ex Post Facto	Trad	18 5.10b	2.50 (2)	70 70ft	0
4 5	-1	Outback	Trad	13 5.9-	2.00 (2)	90 90ft	0
5 6	-1	The Underling	Trad	14 5.9	4.15 (65)	100 100ft	1
6 7	-1	What's Right With the Underling?	Sport	31 5.12a	3.82 (28)	75 75ft	0
7 8	-1	Out On a Limb	Sport	34 5.12c	4.33 (6)	70 70ft	0
8 9	-1	King Me	Sport	25 5.11b	4.78 (112)	90 90ft	1
9 10	-1	Silently Does the Sun Shine	Trad	44 5.14-	5.00 (1)	100 100ft	1
10 10a	-1	The Learning Curve	Trad	31 5.12a	5.00 (2)	35 35ft	1
11 11	-1	Inhibitor	Trad	24 5.11a	4.97 (36)	90 90ft	1
12 12	-1	Nolo Contendere	Sport	31 5.12a	3.36 (11)	90 90ft	0
13 12a	-1	The Pearl	Bouldering	-1 V5	4.00 (1)	10 10ft	0
14 13	-1	The Route Goes Where!?	Sport	28 5.11d	3.00 (4)	50 50ft	0
15 14	-1	The Big Bang	Toprope	20 5.10c	3.50 (2)	50 50ft	0
16 15	-1	Doppler Effect	Trad	18 5.10b	4.55 (40)	50 50ft	1
17 16	-1	Dave the Dude	Sport	28 5.11d	4.74 (66)	70 70ft	1
18 16a	-1	Factor 2 Presents	Trad	8 5.7		0 0ft	0
19 17	-1	Drop the Anchor	Sport	12 5.8+	2.91 (78)	60 60ft	0
20 19	-1	Shelter From the Storm	Trad	28 5.11d		100 100ft	1
21 20	-1	Soul Ram	Sport	32 5.12b	4.86 (28)	100 100ft	1
22 21	-1	Good Times	Trad	12 5.8+	4.28 (60)	100 100ft	1
23 22	-1	The Rifleman	Sport	32 5.12b	3.96 (26)	75 75ft	1
24 23	-1	Old Friends	Trad	11 5.8	2.00 (1)	0 0ft	0
25 23a	-1	True Return to Trad	Trad	11 5.8	2.50 (4)	50 50ft	1
26 24	-1	Martin Rides Again	Sport	28 5.11d	4.31 (42)	70 70ft	1
27 25	-1	Super Dario	Sport	24 5.11a	4.40 (111)	70 70ft	1
28 26	-1	Grunge Face	Sport	31 5.12a	2.44 (9)	70 70ft	0
29 27	-1	Jack in the Pulpit	Sport	21 5.10d	3.92 (95)	70 70ft	1
30 28	-1	Fungus Fantasy	Trad	5 5.5		120 120ft	0
31 29	-1	War Emblem	Trad	20 5.10c	3.00 (1)	0 0ft	0
32 30	-1	Physical Graffiti	Sport	28 5.11d	3.63 (27)	60 60ft	0
33 31	-1	Sick Puppies	Sport	27 5.11c	4.07 (46)	50 50ft	1

Comments

3 comments {add your own comments}

verticalturtle said on June 18th, 2007

Excellent route with Very cool moves. If you're 5'8" or less the obvious crux is likely a little harder.

thermalfissions said on August 27th, 2014

Similar to the directions for Funk Rock City, the directions from the Junior Williams Rest Area are wrong, but if you follow the directions from the Mountain Parkway, they are right. Look on a map and then you can go either way. The parking area is north of the very sharp hairpin for the the sky bridge by about 0.7 miles on 715. Hope that helps.

Scorl said on October 23rd, 2018

As you can tell from the route descriptions, the approach trail meets the cliff at No Return and Shelter from the Storm. Moving right along the cliff is Commencement, Corpus Delicti, Ex Post Facto, etc. At the far right end of the cliff is the sport route Drop the Anchor. The point is that currently routes 1-17 are in reverse order, and No Return and Shelter from the storm should be right next to each other.

Route details are copyright Ray Ellington, John Bronaugh, and other Red River Gorge climbers. Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport. The information in this guidebook is subject to error and should supplement never replace common sense and caution, competent guidance and instruction, and actually being outside. One should be especially cautious on matters of route length, descent type, and number of bolts (especially since such things do change occasionally).

redriverclimbing.com: red river gorge guide

Eastern Sky Bridge Ridge

Directions to Eastern Sky Bridge Ridge

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