Le Dièdre Sud

The last day of good weather before the clouds rolled in!

We'd seen this buttress on our first day in Orpierre – it's hard to miss – and hey, whaddayano, there's an easy route up the centre of it. Perfect!

Described as “following strong features all the way to the top”, the first few pitches were easy enough to find, and pretty enjoyable too. It starts (naturally enough) in a wide corner with interesting stemming moves, before opening out towards the top.


However, the fifth pitch was a bit of a surprise, being a completely unnecessary traverse across a rock face (with paths a metre above and below) – lovely moves, but perhaps a bit contrived! We then worked out that the final two pitches were actually on the face to the right, and not on the edge of the buttress as shown on the topo. Poor form Rockfax! You're normally so reliable, too!




 

What was on the edge of the buttress was the final pitch of Voyage, going at 6a … and that was a far more pleasant way to end the route!
 
 
 
Once up that last pitch, we had lunch on the top - our usual in France, of fresh bread and stinky cheese - before the rappels down.