Almost two years ago, Alex Luger succeeded in redpointing his most difficult multi-pitch route to date: Seventh Direction (8c, 220m). In the film of the same name by Ray Demsky, the Vorarlberg native provides intimate insights into the 5-year process leading up to the first free ascent.
In the summer of 2018 and 2019, the Austrian climber opened Alex Luger in the extremely steep Drusenfluh east face the multi-pitch route Seventh Direction (8c, 220m). On August 6, 2022, he unexpectedly managed to redpoint his most difficult multi-pitch route to date in just six hours.
In the following film by Ray Demsky, Alex Luger and his mentor Johannes Rauch look back at the five-year process of creating this line. The focus is less on the sheer hardness and complexity of the climbing, but rather on the complex interplay between the psyche and climbing. What drives the professional climber to invest so much of his life in Seventh Direction? And what happens when something that was thought to be impossible suddenly becomes possible?
Seventh Direction: The seventh direction of orientation
Alex Luger explained to us what the route name Seventh Direction means in the big interview after his successful redpoint ascent as follows:
«I first read about the seventh direction in a book about Native Americans. Our Western culture speaks of four directions. Native American cultures recognize seven directions.
There are the directions of east, south, west and north, which correspond to our life cycle of birth, youth, adulthood and the time of elderhood. Then there is the direction of heaven and earth. These six directions are easy to find. The seventh direction, however, is more difficult to identify.
It is the direction within all of us, the place that helps us see right from wrong and maintain balance by choosing to live in a good way.
Alex Luger
I really liked the seventh direction of orientation and thought this name was a fitting route name because it is a very personal challenge to do such a route.»
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Credits: Cover picture Ray Demsky