Endless seas of alpine granite on Dent d´Orlu
Sitting at the very end of the Ariege valley in the French Pyrenees the Dent d´Orlu is best known for its striking silhouette and its monster 1000m+ routes. However we were not out for a multi day climb and chose the less intimidating 11 pitch Tapas sans Dalle for our first outing on this mountain.
A 350 meter 11 pitch 5c+ line on the East face of this 2.200m peak
Even choosing one of the shorter routes climbing it still doesn’t come easy: Our plan was to ride bikes up the 550m of elevation the trailhead, hike up another 500 meters, climb our 350m route and the hike and bike back down. Quite a big piece of cake for a nice day out.
The day started under blue skies and in crispy cold air with the aforementioned bike ride: 50 minutes of huffing and puffing with cold hands - more work than pleasure. Hiking up for another 50 minutes through still frozen meadows and into the sun under the east face at about 1.800m above sea level was really pleasant in comparison.
Finding the route in the right hand part of the massive east face was fairly easy and we started into the giant sea of granite under a warming sun and with good spirits. The face itselfs is a mix of differently angled slabs broken up by small overhangs and steeper walls. The Tapas sans Dalle route is mainly a French fourth grade affair with a 5b and a 5c+ pitch in the second half before getting easier again for the last few pitches to the summit of Dent d´Orlu.
Covering the first five pitches we made good progress - however the 4c slabs were still really engaging with the protection being good but not still bolted „alpine“ style. Pitch 6 was the first crux: A short overhanging bit with a few unsecure moves to get up onto the next slab. Pitch 7 stepped things up again with first a thin slab and then another overhang that asked for some hard crimp pulling and a very high and dodgy foot placement - still the 5c+ is grading was fair if you are used to a bit of granite.
After that the last four pitches were easy enough in terms of climbing but a bit more of a way finding challenge at the very end where the granite starts to be interspersed with shrubbery. We made it up to the summit and the absolutely gorgeous views from the high Pyrenees in Spain and Andorra to the flatlands of Toulouse and the Mediterranean sea after about 3,5 hours of climbing.
The way back down first to the bikes and then back to the road took us only about an hour in the still perfect weather.
This climb was definitely a highlight of our time in the Ariege valley and I for one will be back to get on one of the monster routes in the south face for a real big wall adventure!
Adventurers: Wolf and Bengt