Siebe Vanhee repeats Orbayu, 8c multi-pitch on Naranjo de Bulnes in Picos de Europa

Belgium’s Siebe Vanhee has made a rare repeat of Orbayu, the 500m 8c multi-pitch located on the West Face of Picu Urriellu, more commonly known as Naranjo De Bulnes in the Picos de Europa National Park, Spain. The 13-pitch line is in part a free version of Mediterraneo, an aid route established in 1980, and was first climbed free in 2009 by Iker Pou and his brother Eneko. Previous repeats were carried out by Nicolas Favresse and Adam Pustelnik in 2011, Cédric Lachat in 2014, Edu Marin in 2016 and Gorka Karapeto in 2017.

Vanhee spent a total of 6 days working the route, in particular the crux 8c pitch, and after waiting for his skin to recover he repeated the route on Saturday, redpointing all the hardest pitches first go and climbed all the way to the summit with Ignacio Mulero and David Lopez.

28-year-old Vanhee is somewhat of a specialist in hard big walls, with fast repeats last year of Yeah Man on Gran Pfad in the Gastlosen mountain range and Silbergeier on the IV Kirchlispitze in Rätikon, as well as important first ascents across the globe, such as Kids With Guns on Tepui Amuri in Venezuela (2012), Fire in the Belly on Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar (2015), Sense retorn - No turning back on Mont Rebei in Spain (2019), Jardines de Piedras on Cerro la Sombra in Valle la Luz at Cochamó in Chile (2020) and Bailando con la Lluvia in Valle de la Plata in Patagonia (2020).

Links: FB Siebe Vanhee, www.siebevanhee.be, La Sportiva, Petzl, The North Face