Nemuel Feurle, Jacopo Larcher and Babara Zangerl repeat Seventh Direction (8c, 220m) in Rätikon

Following up on their recent repeats of The Gift in the Rätikon, last week Babara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher made the second and third repeats of Seventh Direction. This 220m 8c was established ground-up over a period of five years by Alex Luger on the East Face of Drusenfluh in the world-famous Rätikon massif, and repeated for the first time in August 2024 by Nemuel Feurle.

After her ascent, which she summed up as "one of my most intense and motivated days in Rätikon", Zangerl explained "On August 15th, after completing our project The Gift, we heard that Nemo had successfully climbed "Seventh Direction," which is located on the same rock face but about 50 meters to the left. Unlike The Gift, which has one very hard pitch (8c) and another graded 8a+, "Seventh Direction" is consistently difficult and runs through the steepest section of the massif. While we were working on "The Gift" we often saw Nemo taking big falls on this exposed route. He spent various days spread out over two summers working on the steep line and finally made the very first repeat at the end of August.

After Jacopo’s send of "The Gift" he decided to join Nemo for a day on "Seventh Direction" to get a feel for it. They climbed the first difficult pitch together before a severe thunderstorm forced them to retreat. On the next attempt, I joined in. Jacopo and I spent three days working out all the pitches and finding solutions for the tough sections, benefiting greatly from Nemo’s previous efforts. He left his fixed ropes, and the route was already cleaned with visible chalk marks, making our task a bit easier. After three days of work on the different pitches, we decided to try a redpoint ascent. With five of the eight pitches ranging from 8a to 8b+, we agreed to approach it the same way as "The Gift" - one of us leading all pitches one day, and the other the next. To decide who would go first, we played rock-paper-scissors. Luck was on my side and I won, meaning I was up the next day.

On September 1st we started early due to a high chance of thunderstorms. The first three pitches were easy, but the first hard pitch on the steep part of the wall took all my energy; I was not fully warmed up and barely managed to climb that pitch. My arms were pumped, and I already fel exhausted after the first hard section of the overhang. After a brief rest, I pushed on, feeling more confident but still nervous. I fought through a tricky boulder problem, only to fall just before the anchor of the second hardest pitch. Frustrated! Jacopo lowered me back down to the belay. I tried again 45 minutes later and made it to the anchor. Back in the game!

Then came the crux pitch. It was a massive fight, but I somehow barley made it and clipped the anchor, realizing I still had a small chance to send the whole line that day. Without much rest, scared by the dark clouds above, I pushed through the next 8a pitch, making it to the very last pitch as the sky grew darker. I asked Jacopo if he could jumar up instead of climbing to save time, as we could hear thunder approaching.

Again no time for a proper rest, I began the final pitch, the one I had practiced the most. I was confident but really exhausted as well. Maybe it was too much of a rush and pressure to keep on going? Again I fell at the very last move. I thought it was over. But then, a miracle... a small blue window opened in the clouds right above our route, while it rained all around us. After an hour's rest, the sky cleared, giving me one more chance. Feeling more relaxed and finally after a proper rest I climbed through the cruxes and reached the top.

It was one of my most intense and motivated days in Rätikon — an incredible, steep climb through the wildest part of this wall located at Gelbegg. Thanks, Alex Luger, for this amazing route! And the biggest thanks goes to my partner in crime for all the support during the day and for sharing all those great moments together.

Jacopo climbed the route two days later on the 3rd of September. He didn’t make a single fall, climbing everything first try on lead! It was a perfect day, we were super fast, both no falls and we stood on top of the wall at around 2:30 p.m. That was a perfect ending to a great summer, spending lots of time in the beautiful Austrian part of the Rätikon."