Belgian duo Siebe Vanhee and Sébastien Berthe have made the first one-day, ground-up free ascent of Rayu 8c (600m) on the south face of Peña Santa (2596m), in the Picos de Europa National Park, Spain.

Rayu was established by Iker and Eneko Pou and Kico Cerdá in 2020. It is the second difficult multipitch in the Picos de Europa opened by the Pou brothers, after Orbayu, the famous 550m 8c on Picu Urreillu (Naranjo de Bulnes) established in 2009.

In 2020, Siebe completed a free ascent of Orbayu. For him, it made 'complete sense' to return to the Picos to attempt Rayu. On good form following his first-ever 8c onsight last week (UKC News), Seb Berthe joined forces with his compatriot.

Siebe commented:

'The weather forecast for the day didn't look that great, a few millimetres of rain and wind were predicted. We decided to see it as something positive, given the route is south facing, we would need the clouds to be able to climb without sun before 5pm.'

After completing the adventurous first 10 pitches, passing the sizeable ledge in the middle of the wall, the pair reached the base of the crux pitch (p11) at 2 p.m. Although the lower pitches are significantly easier in grade, they are typically run-out with few bolts and rely on additional trad gear. Siebe explained their approach for the crux pitch:

'Now the nerves started to kick-in and we were facing a dilemma; "Who would go first?". Even if it seems ambitious, we both thought we could have a chance to flash the pitch. The one who would go first might fail on his first go due to the lack of chalk and info, and will of course have to do some substantial work: finding beta, brushing holds, and therefore losing skin and getting tired.

'I felt like my chances to flash the pitch were lower than Sébastien's, so I figured I could give it a good onsight go with the option to fall and figure out all the moves for a perfect second go. This way I would also mark all the holds and find the beta to give Seb the best chance of a flash! When I came down, Seb was freezing his tight lycras off while waiting for me. I explained him the final bits of beta and he took off.'

While bivvying on the mountain before their ascent, the pair also watched the Reel Rock film Rayu documenting Sasha DiGiulian, Matilda Söderlund and Brette Harrington's first all-female ascent of the route to glean information about the pitch. (UKC News).

Seb commented on his crux pitch flash ascent:

'I struggle in the first crux, breathe, I struggle again in the second crux, focus, I climb well in the third one, shake my pumpy forearms. The final long crux is above me: I know exactly what to do and I go for it. Close call: I almost missed the hold, Siebe is shouting at me! Now, I am fighting for real, three more moves! Two more. I shout myself, hard. One move left. Elbows are high, I manage to stick the final hold, in extremis! I can't believe I am still on the wall, clipping the chain of what I would call a nice "flash-team effort". Happy, proud and grateful.'

Siebe prepared for second-go success to enable a rapid in-a-day team ascent. He said:

'FLASH! He did it, I was super psyched! I couldn't wait to give it a try myself now. I was so confident. I went for it, clean and perfect climbing while surfing on the sending vibes, brought me to the anchor. A big scream of joy was accompanied by Seb's load laughter and some more people at Refugio Vega Huerta celebrating with us. It was 5 p.m. and we continued to the summit. We reached the summit at 7:30pm and descended the North side of the mountain. Climbing hard multipitches in a "one day – first day" push is exciting. Seb is the master in this style and I loved to take on this challenge as well! Big thanks to Kico Cerda, Iker and Eneko Pou for this amazing line and sharing logistical information with us. It's been another great classic in the Picos.'

Both Seb and Siebe have their reservations about the proposed grade of 8c, but believe they may have benefitted from their height as taller climbers.

"Rayu's amazing crux pitch was proposed as 8c by the first ascensionists. We had the feeling that it could be a bit easier though. Despite the reasonably good shape we are in, we can't honestly say that we are able to send an 8c pitch that quick, high on a multipitch. Compared to the recent sport climbs I've done, it felt closer to 8b+. The rests are too good and the moves are probably too easy to make it a proper 8c. Moreover, for Siebe, the crux pitch of Rayu definitely felt easier than the crux pitch of Orbayu (which is more or less confirmed as 8c). Maybe he got stronger as well?

'We reckon that the difficulty of the crux section of the pitch definitely depends on size and height, and it is probably easier for taller people. Siebe and I used quite reachy beta which is probably impossible for smaller people. Let's see what future ascensionists will think about it, time will tell.

Seb broke down his thoughts on the difficulty of the pitch and fed them into the darth-grader algorithm:

'7a+ (route) - Medium rest - 7A (boulder) - Good rest - 6C - Bad rest - 6C - Medium rest - 7A - 6C ⇒ the algorithm gives it as 8b+ . Nevertheless, this 'downgrading' proposition does not detract from the performance of the Pou brothers and Kico Cerdá: opening and freeclimbing this pitch and route ground-up with this airy style is an amazing feat! Full respect!'