Orion Direct

Looking up at Orion Direct

Today Lena and I headed up the Ben track with a few plans. These plans narrowed down to just the 1 after chatting to Mike and Guy at the CIC. We finally decided on Orion Direct. We got to the start just after Mike. At the first belay Lena decided that she wanted pitch 1. Pitch 2 was icy grooves heading up to the nut belay on the left. Lena wanted pitch 3 up into the snow field, this is where she found out exactly how long a 60m rope is (not quite 70m). Pitch 4 took us to the nut belay before the crux. The crux was excellent, exciting, a little thin and poorly protected. A couple more pitches took us up to Lena's belay before the chimney. This turned out to be my favourite pitch. In the end we got to the top in 10 pitches, sharing leads. A pretty great day out, especially when Orion Direct wasn't even plan A! There weren't that many teams out on the hill today, but there were 3 teams on Orion, 5 on Point 5, teams on Tower Ridge, Slav Route and Minus 3 gully. An awesome day.

Lena starts off on Pitch 1

I set off on Pitch 2

Lena getting to the end of Pitch 2

Lena starts Pitch 3

I'm on Pitch 4

Lena approaching the end of Pitch 4

Pitch 5 - the slightly thin crux traverse

Traverse

The Exit Chimney

Lena looking up the chimney

Looking down the chimney

Lena finishing the chimney pitch

Pitch 9

Lena finishes pitch 9

Lena at the top of Orion Direct - and she found a couple of GIANT NOMIC AXES !

This is the topo we followed on the route - even though the route was obvious with all the trails to follow. I took this off a blog, but can't remember which one - sorry. If you recognise it, let me know. We did the climb in 10 pitches today.