UKC

First female ascent* of Orbayu, ~8C MP, by CaprezUpdated

© Sam Bié
Nina Caprez and Cédric Lachat on top Naranjo de Bulnes, 2529m  © Sam Bié
Nina Caprez and Cédric Lachat on top Naranjo de Bulnes, 2529m
© Sam Bié

Nina Caprez has made the first female ascent of the Pou-brothers' 500 m multi-pitch Orbayu, ~8c, on the Naranjo de Bulnes in the Picos de Europa, Spain.

The route was first done by Iker and Eneko Pou in August 2009. They graded the crux pitch (the 5th) ~8c+/9a, but since then repeaters have estimated it to more in the 8c region i.e still extremely bloody difficult.

Nina worked the route together with her boyfriend Cédric Lachat who repeated it earlier this summer.

The list of successful ascents is still very short:
- Iker Pou, SPA
- Eneko Pou, SPA
- Adam Pustelnik, POL
- Nico Favresse, BEL
- Cédric Lachat, CHE
- Nina Caprez, CHE

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that Nina so far has "only" managed to redpoint all the individual pitches, but separately, (not all in one go) i.e no complete ascent yet. Apologies!

Nina Caprez is sponsored by: Arc'teryx, Chimpanzee, Climb On, Julbo, Petzl, Scarpa and Suunto


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31 Jul, 2014
Brilliant, glad it was a success. I look forward to seeing the film, any footage of this place is something special. Will Sasha now go for it too I wonder, whole of August to use. . .
31 Jul, 2014
Big congrats! However and to be fair (to the other ascensionist), some facts must be said; *Eneko Pou (Iker's brother) didn't redpointed the hard pitches. *Nina Caprez, although she has all the pitches redpointed, she did them separately, blaming the weather conditions together with the powerful nature of the climb, as the main factors for not doing the whole route in one push. (she said it's close to her limits, and that she would need, weather,strength and the right mind-frame, playing in her favour all at once). So the list get shortened depending on what one consider to be a repeat. ***Edit: The previous message wasn't there at the time of my posting, so double the info ;)
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