We're giving this page a facelift!
Visit the previous versionto make edits.
Peak Mountain 3

Orange Mechanique

FA Matt Samet, Dave Pegg, Bill Ramsey, Katie Cavicchio
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

This is the first route you'll come to in this sector, and climbs a very orange vertical face past 10 bolts. As you round the bend past the second big pillar, you'll head steeply uphill on a slidey scree slope into an alcove with four routes. This is the leftmost route.

Yup, yup, I know, there's a much more famous (and probably much better) Orange Mechanique in Cimai, France (8a), but I couldn't come up with a better name.

The bolts are a little more closely spaced on this one than most Fortress routes due to the stucco-like texture of the rock, which could tear your knees up and elbows up pretty good in a fall. The holds themselves, however, aren't too sharp. This sort of climbs like a Shelf Road route.

Treating the crumbly pockets gently, stretch high for the first bolt, clip a second, then move slightly up and left to the third. Turn a small roof, then onto the orange face, which grows increasingly harder and more technical the higher you get. (It begins to overhang just a bit, too.)

A decent pocket near the arete gives you a shake before the redpoint (pump) crux moving into the grey rock. Climbing on water pockets and grey incuts takes you to the anchors, at the base of a dihedral.

Best done on cool-weather days and with a good, stiff pair of shoes. Sustained.

Protection

12 quickdraws.