Here is a very hardy pilgrim's honest opinion. Overall hard to say, we left SJPP in the am and got to Orrisson far quicker than we anticipated after about 3 hours or even a little less and had an extremely boring and uncomfortable cold afternoon and evening up there. After the amazing gites in France I did not warm to Orrisson at all. From 11 am to the next morning with nothing to do, nowhere comfortable to sit, cold, wet, fog, rain in the middle of July., I had one of the most miserable periods of my pilgrimages over 4500 km. The dorm felt damp and smelt of toilet, the showers were cold, there was no fire to make the cold damp afternoon bearable, the front door was open all the time and I wore all of my clothes and still felt cold. Dinner was late. No reading material or lounge space, just the stark restaurant accessed via an outdoor staircase from the dorm, so every time you toed and froed you got wetter and colder. If you were to arrive a little earlier in SJPP I would say go for it...from 4 pm it is a bit of a challenge, but doable if you are basically fit and totally organised and depending on the time of year and the light at the end of the day. There is always an option of getting a taxi even part of the way up to Orrisson and starting there, the actual walk up is boring, road walking, no big deal....I would opt of taxying up at least part way and starting in the am...of course if it is a beautiful day it would be nice to hang out on the terrace up there and admire the view and drink beer, cheers, Gitti