Five-Year Project is Now Seven-Pitch 5.14b in Switzerland
Seventh Direction ranks as one of the most difficult multi-pitch routes in the world-famous Rätikon range
Photo by: Ray Demski
Alex Luger has made the first complete one-day ground-up ascent of his multi-year project in Switzrland’s Rätikon. The seven-pitch 220-metre line goes at 5.14b and climbs the east face of Drusenfluh. He’s named it Seventh Direction.
Luger established the climb in 2018 and 2019 with Flo Wild, Hanno Schluge and Christoph Luger. After several attempts, he redpointed it from the bottom to the top on Aug. 6 with Pio Jutz supporting. The pitches go at 5.11+, 5.11+, 5.13d, 5.14a, 5.14b, 5.13b and 5.13d. Each of the crux pitches overhangs up to 10 metres.
Luger explains what some of the climb was like for him: “I crimp a small three finger hold with my left hand, trying to get as much surface of my fingers into this knife blade hold. While placing a high right foot I am reaching for a side hold with my right hand. I am looking up left, realizing how little structures I will face on the next one and a half meters. Focusing a small sloppery two fingers hold I need to reorganize my feet. Then I push for this two-finger hold with my left hand. I scream and all the accumulated tension transforms into force. I have to continue with my left hand onto a shoulder crimp, bring up my right hand on the two finger sloper and jump to the rail, which divides the steep wall from low angel terrain. Within seconds I am able to mantle up onto flat terrain with great caution as there are loose blocks. I get around those threatening obstacles reaching easier terrain. Now that I am sitting down on a flat spot still holding on to the wall with my hands. Everything is gone, I feel empty, I feel redeemed, I feel excited and sad. I lost something. No trust is needed anymore as uncertainty fades away.”
In 2015, Luger freed the 330-metre The Gift 5.14b on the same peak, read about it here. Luger said, “Seventh Direction is the hardest route in the Rätikon, along with Wogü (watch below), and is unique with its overhanging terrain.”
The Rätikon is composed of very compact limestone that offers technical slabs and vertical faces. There are several peaks located along a huge range, of which Drusenfluh is one. Most of the routes require solid footwork and route-finding skills. The climbing is often described as adventurous and memorable.
Seventh Direction: From Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Joseph Bruchac in 1996: “Western culture speaks of four directions. Native American cultures throughout the continent recognize seven. There are the cardinal directions of East, South, West, and North, directions that correspond to our life cycle of birth, youth, adulthood, and time of being an elder, respectively. Then there are the directions of Earth and Sky. These Six directions are easy to locate. The seventh direction, however, is harder to see. It is the direction within us all, the place that helps us see right and wrong and maintain the balance by choosing to live in a good way.”
Wogü
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