Just six days after making the first in-a-day free ascent of Rayu alongside Siebe Vanhee, Seb Berthe has made a rare repeat of Orbayu, 8c Multipitch, on Picu Urriellu in Picos de Europa, Spain.

Like Rayu, the route was established by Iker and Eneko Pou. Since they made the first free ascent in 2009, the route is thought to have had six further free ascents, with Seb's partner Siebe Vanhee making a sixteen-hour ascent of the route back in 2020.

Whilst Seb is not the first to have climbed the route in under a day, he is the first to have gone through the entire process of reaching the wall, working the route, and then climbing it, all within twenty-four hours.

He got in touch with us last Friday to share some thoughts.

'Last week I sent Orbayu in a day on Picu Uriellu, Picos de Europa, on my first ever day climbing on it'.

'On Friday 25th of August, together with french climbers Soline Kentzel, Ugo Monier, Erwan Rucay (last two came to take pictures and climb a bit in the first pitches), we started on the first 7c pitch at 7:15am. I climbed fast and strong through the first four pitches (graded 7c, 8a+, 8a and 7a, but are most probably easier than that) flashing or onsighting all of them. I arrived at the base of the crux pitch around 10am, feeling fresh, confident and ready to try hard!' 

'The only bad new: the weather was changing a lot, and clouds were dangerously coming closer and closer. The name of the route, "Orbayu", comes from the very typical low clouds coming from the ocean that are literally eating you: wet fog and not much visibility. The least we can say is that we had our dose of Orbayu that day! As soon as I started climbing on the 8c pitch, Orbayu clouds were on us'. 

'My first flash go stopped quite fast: I fell at the crux due to a wrong beta. Then, I spent almost an hour finding my way up to the anchor and dialling the beta. After the crux, the final bit of the pitch has no bolts anymore and is quite tricky: quite physical climbing, slippery pockets (pin-scars where aid climbers would put pegs), hard to protect... Back down to the belay, I felt confident and optimistic about my chance of success that day'.

'Unfortunately, my second attempt didn't really go as expected: the clouds were soaking us… Rock was still dry, but ropes, draws, skin were wet. Rope drag was terrible due to water on the rope, I slipped once, I slipped twice, but stayed somehow on the wall. But after a battle on the crux, this try ended badly: I fell at the last move of the section with a split fingertip, a bloody wound on my index finger'. 

'The orbayu was coming in and out and it was impossible to predict when it would be time to climb. After a really long rest, I put some tape on my finger and I went for the third try. It ended the same way as my second try. Things were going bad and my chances of doing it were decreasing drastically…'

'I felt tired and pessimistic. But Soline, Ugo and Erwan were so happy and psyched! The mood was great, I can only recommend you to seek out your own multipitch project'.

'I decided to give it a last go, just for the game. The climbing was hard, I was slow and weak, my skin hurt. The crew was cheering so much. Battle was on! Somehow, thanks to those guys, I climbed my way through the crux. I now needed to stay really calm and focus. I took my time and fought so hard in the final section, feeling tired and pumped. What a moment to finally clip the anchor after about thirty minutes of fight! Wow, I couldn't really believe what I had just done…'

'It was 5pm (I spent about six-seven hours on that pitch) and we had to be fast: there were ten more tricky pitches on gears… I onsighted the following 8a and Soline and I kept moving slowly (quite easy climbing but interesting protection and itinerary) to the top of Picu Uriellu! It was 11pm'.

'We finally reached the parking lot at 3am, getting lost a few times in the very wet clouds on the way down… Ugo and Erwan were still waiting for us with food, grateful! A nice 21 hour day!'

'Thanks to Soline, Erwan, Ugo, Siebe, Nolwen, Kico and Alvaro!'

'Note: It is hard for me to give an honest opinion about the grade of the crux pitch. Conditions were probably not optimal and I struggled quite hard… Previous climbers gave it around 8c. Compared to the other sport climbs I've done around here, it felt similar to the 8c's I've tried. Still I would not be surprised if it was 8b+. It is probably harder than the crux pitch of Rayu. Anyway, another great climb out there!'