Jana Švecová makes first ascent of Tokyo Drift, 8C boulder problem at Lidomorna

Jana Švecová has made the first ascent of a project she started working on about a year ago, Tokyo Drift at the crag Lidomorna in Moravský Kras, Czech Republic. The boulder starts and finishes on Adam Ondra's 8C Drift, but instead of looping around to the left, it climbs the direct line through the 60° bulge using the footholds of Drift as handholds.

Švecová suprised herself by initially made fast progress but was then forced to take an extended period off due to a finger injury. She slowly returned to form and, realising that conditions were good (read: no longer -5°C), sent what she now believes is 8C. Ten sessions were needed for her hardest problem to date. 

After her ascent the 28-year-old stated "Today was the best day of my climbing career. The send was so unexpected, not because I wouldn’t be close in terms of highpoint, but because of the conditions and other circumstances. First of all, the temp was 5 degrees celsius which is almost unimaginable for me to climb and extremely windy. Second of all, I had to readjust most of the holds and even had a foot slip... but the desire to send this boulder this go, this session was bigger than any slip and wrongly hit hold. It just worked … well, it was kinda drama at the end, I was emotional."

In 2023 Švecová made headline news with the first ascent of Nova at the same crag, grading the line 8B+. It has since been repeated by others and the problem has been upgraded to 8C, meaning that Nova, and Tokyo Drift, are currently the hardest boulder problems ever established by a woman.

It's worth noting that Tokyo Drift, just like Nova two years ago, is actually nothing more than a side project for Švecová, whose stated aim is to repeat Terranova, the 8C+ put up by Adam Ondra in 2011 and currently unrepeated.

 

 

 

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