West Face

This is the best route that tops out on the summit of ORP. It is easily identified as the major corner system that rises for a few hundred feet up the North West side of ORP.

Start: from the Canyon between ORP and Lesser Spire, and once near the base of ORP's northwest corner, scramble up a short slab to a brushy ledge directly beneath the obvious corner system

New Pitch Description: There are a few oldish bolted anchors on this route and at least one random old buttonhead, but on two trips up the route, we've never used any fixed anchors since there are plentiful gear anchor options.

P1 (25m): Starts with some moderate climbing in the steep vegetated corner up to a crux in an off-width, flaring chimney corner. Good body scumming technique and a large cam will see you through it, but it is also readily aidable. After this crux, continue up the corner system to a nice belay stance.

P2 (15m): Relatively easy climbing to a good belay ledge about 10m beneath the overhanging roof. This pitch could be linked with P1, but potentially with some rope drag.

P3 (10m): climb up the left corner and below the overhanging roof, then traverse right about 5ft to where it becomes feasible to pull up over the roof onto a ledge. The more reach you have, the easier this will be, as there is a reachy jug that helps you muscle over the roof. A #2/yellow Camalot protects the move nicely. Belay from the small ledge above the roof to make sure you have good communication with your follower as they climb the pitch. This ledge becomes quite crowded with 3 people.

P4 (40m): Another awkward, flaring off-width crux (like the one on P1) is encountered immediately upon leaving the belay station. A #0.5/purple Camalot protects this move. After that the climbing eases up for a while until a final crux is encountered, involving an unsure slab move to the left out of a crack system (small cams & balls nuts useful). Belay from a brushy ledge above this.

P5 (40m): Numerous 5.7 or easier options exist for proceeding to the summit, but there's not really a straight line path, such that rope drag adds up with the frequent meandering. Another ~15m final pitch may be required to reach the final scramble to the summit.

Original Pitch Description: Pitch 1: Starts with some moderate climbing in the steep vegetated corner up to a crux in an off-width, flaring chimney corner. This crux may feel hard for the grade, but good body scumming technique and a large cam will see you through it. After this crux, continue up the vegetated corner system to a nice belay stance.

Pitch 2: The vegetation finally gives way to cleaner rock. A second crux is pulling around a steep headwall. There are two options for this, a steep fist-OW crack on the left or making a delicate face move to the right to gain big holds through the headwall. Both ways protect well, with medium-large cams. A short ways further is a third crux, a perfect 20 ft finger crack that eats up wired stoppers and tops out at a two-bolt anchor. Two more pitches of moderate climbing/route-finding meander through blocky terrain to the top.

The start is roughly across from Cacahuate in the canyon between ORP and Lesser Spire. The entire route can be rappelled in 4 two-rope rappels and there are a few old-sling rappel stations that are found while climbing the route. The bolted anchors are roughly 70m off the deck, so if you have two 70's you could potentially get down from there in a single rappel.

A few big pieces are good to have for this route. Otherwise, a standard rack does the trick. By no means do you need a lot of big pro, we only had one #3 and 2 #2 Camelots and the route felt only a little edgy. One more bigger piece would give added security.

The bolts at the top of P2 are both 3/8" and although one is fairly rusty, the other looks newer and solid. There is also an old home-made aluminum hanger and button head 6 ft to the left of these which I mention out of interest because it isn't going to hold a much. Gear anchors for all other belays.