Ratikon - serious stuff (June 2018)

Never-ending story 8b+ (tries) fot. Read Macadam

After Sardegna I was pretty bummed to be rained out. Between the wet rock and the coming summer conditions it was like being forced to leave empty handed. Then Jozo called and he says he had a crazy amazing idea.
“Hey, Ola, come and climb with me in Ratikon this summer.”
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I didnt really know what that meant, but I was hungry for another multipitch project and Jozo’s fanatic energy for climbing serious stuff is always a great opportunity.
​I think I really knew what climbing in the Ratikon meant after the first half of the first day. Slippy grass approach, loose first pitch, then the runouts...bolts so far apart that on the third pitch Jozo missed the chains and ran it out in x-rated terrain to gun for the next visible bolt - the second on the next pitch! I have crazy respect for Jozo’s mental ability on this kind of climbing.
The alpine weather is always unpredictable so we had time to chill in the green meadows on rain days, isolated from phone connection and city life. Really peaceful time. ​Mid-July Jozo had to leave so I stayed ten days alone in the valley, practicing the crux pitches on a static, all alone on the wall. Through hailstorms and rain I got more and more comfortable with the exposure and the moves, and feeling refreshed from the pristine alpine air that I was itching for a partner to try some pitches on lead!

On a bitter note, one day the locals threw my tent and sleeping bag in the river. They had been giving me unfriendly looks since I arrived, but for sure now I felt completely violated and unsafe to be there alone so I left for home...

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