UKC

Does anyone know Le Pilier Sud on Dent D'Orlu? Reputedly a great *** day out but might be tricky to follow the line??

In reply to frank price:
Did it last week. We'd planned to bivvy at top of pitch 13 (as suggested by Rockfax guide) but didn't get there in time (the climbing is harder on the lower half) so found good spot at top pitch 10. Only had three litres of water to last two days and midday temperatures were in the high 20s! We pitched the 24 pitches, and scrambled other sections and moved together up the final ridge. It's easy to follow a path through the vegetation, but at the next rock section you may need to look around to find the bolts.

In reply to frank price: we did it in a day a few weeks ago, amazing day out but lots of climbing! We lost a good few hours getting lost, there is a few sections where it's not totally clear

In reply to frank price:

I did it a few months ago. It's an awesome day out. Get on it! My write-up is below with photos if of interest:

http://leeharrisonclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/le-pilier-sud-td-6a-dent-...

Note the difficulties finding the line of bolts above one of the sections of jungle on the route. We spent a good while trying to spot the continuation.

In reply to frank price:

We did it in a day about 3-4 years ago.

Hardest part was finding the start in the dark. Don't remember any route finding difficulties in the climbing itself but perhaps we were lucky.

There's a 3b vertical garden after "La Main" which is easy but feels a bit exposed when you're tired, and we had some rope drag on the final few pitches (again not thinking altogether straight).

Worth dropping a car on the other side if you can - shortens the walk off quite a bit and the campsite at the bottom on that side has a bar that's open late...

In reply to JJL:

Yes, we made a mess of finding the start as well. The sign in the RF guide has fallen off the tree but you still won't miss it as it was balanced on a rock, or something, next to the path from memory. You'll be following red dots up to this point but the secret is to STOP following these once you reach the sign. We didn't do this and having followed the sign right we then mistakedly looped back left towards the red dots. We lost around an hour in the process following them up some creek.

The descent back in the direction of the South face car park didn't look that bad btw, although we didn't have enough daylight left. The RF descent description suggests an epic will ensue but the photo showing the line of descent is pretty clear so I really don't think it would have been a problem. I would do a route on the East Face to familiarise yourself with the summit area first if you have time.

I think one day for the ascent is ok provided you can move quickly on the easier pitches on granite slab, are largely happy using the bolts in place (sometimes a little sparce), and are happy moving together on the easier pitches. Most of the climbing is in the lower half so moving together through the easier upper sections is critical. Bring a light rack to supplement the bolts but be prepared not to waste to much time placing.

In reply to frank price: We never saw the sign, but didn't have trouble finding the start - just occasionally we had to cast around for the dots. When they gave out, there weren't any cairns, but we thought we'd ascended through the woods enough and that it was time to follow a vague path to traverse right (following the RF instructions) and found the start easily.

In reply to Mr. Lee:

Our experience was that it was pretty unpleasant. Although route finding is in principle easy, you are moving down steep banks through undergrowth with limited visibility, aware that there are cliffs in the vicinity.

We heard of one party who attempted it in the dark without headtorches and I gather took about 6 hours on hands and knees...

In reply to jonny taylor: Thanks guys, some great info - if the weather holds we'll be on it but might need a bivvy as the nights will be drawing in when we're there.

In reply to frank price:We did this route a couple of week ago. We skegged the route out the day b4 which was just aswell cos we got lost. The sign is missing directing u to the right so we ended up at the base of "Josephine" about 1 hour too far left ! We started early the next day

In reply to frank price: As i was saying,we started early the next day by which time it only took 30mins to find the bottom of the route cos we knew where the start was. It took 11 hrs to reach the summit at 1800hrs, 1 hour before dark. We pitched all the routes above grade 5 and simul-climbed below this grade. Route finding was ok apart from getting slightly lost on the 2nd bit of scrambling where you have to remember to keep going diagonally right to below an open corner (with a slab to the left). We lost about 1 hour at this point. There is a scrambling path that goes straight up to a bivvy spot (about 100m left of the line).We descended down the south side via the shepherd's hut, just above the forest, but could not locate the path through the forest! The Rockfax guide is not very clear at this point. So we spent about 3 hours bush-whacking through the forest to get back to the carpark around midnight. All in all a fantastic climb on quality rock. Unless you skeg the south side descent b4 hand i wouldnt recommend it. Have fun.

In reply to marcus123:


That sounds exactly what we did! We went as far a giant arrow painted on a rock, which pointed up a small gully. Soon after this we realised we were clearly nowehere near the the South Pillar. We lost about the same amount of time. Without the sign I imagine the fork would be quite difficult to identy as the left way looked more obvious from memory.

In reply to Mr. Lee: the sig was there a few weeks ago lying on a rock

In reply to marcus123:

There isn't one.

At least, not until you get really quite low down and pick up a path that traverses downwards and ?west?wards