Jana Svecova FA’s Tokyo Drift (8C) - Updated!

Jana Svecova, who in 2023 did the FA of Nova (8C), reports on Instagram that she has done her second 8C FA, Tokyo Drift (8C) in Holstejn.

”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. I will tell and show you the whole story in a YouTube video that will come out soon hopefully”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
I started trying Tokyo last year as a side project while projecting Terranova. I tried it in my best shape ever - around the time I thought I could send Terranova and when I did Mild Abuse of Terminology (8B+) pretty quickly. I just felt really strong. I did all the moves in my first session, but even after 3–4 sessions, the thought of sending—or even linking the first five moves—felt insane. Then the finger injuries came, and the year was over… Mentally, I felt really down. For the second year in a row, I got injured in my best shape by pushing too hard on the rocks with rather tired fingers from the training. That year felt long, and the way back felt endless. I started doubting whether I could ever get back into shape and try hard again. In November, after a month of training, we went to Switzerland. I thought I’d climb 8As every day and just get volume in. In the end, I was happy to get just two 8As in the whole month, but I did get the volume. I climbed so many amazing easier boulders. It was a great trip, but also quite shocking how weak I felt. It made me doubt myself and whether I could ever get as strong as I was before, or even stronger. We got home, Martin got psyched to train with his new coach, and all of us gym buddies trained really hard. It was like a training camp until the end of January. It felt so good, but I still didn’t feel super strong, probably just tired from all the training volume. Did I learn from the last years? Yes! I stop when something feels iffy, or even at the slightest pain. At the end of February, we went to Switzerland again. Martin was hooked on an 8C and wanted to project it properly, so I joined with no particular goal. Just to enjoy climbing with Mélissa Le Nevé and watch Adam flashing crazy things. But I already started feeling stronger. I did Darkness (8A+) quite fast and got hooked on Flowers. I did really well on the powerful bottom and somehow managed to link the mantle in isolation, which is crazy, considering I struggled with 6C+ mantles two years ago, but if there’s something I really like it’s physical challenges. Two weeks of rock climbing, and mostly a lot of resting, resulted in a spike in form. We got home, perfect conditions arrived, so I decided to go all-in on the Tokyo project. Six sessions later, it was done. I think over ten sessions in total.

So what is it about, and why Tokyo Drift?
There is a boulder called Drift (8C) by Adam Ondra that shares the same start and finish. But directly above the starting hold, there’s a seemingly blank section of rock that you cycle around from the left, through decent holds and then traverse to the right with crux at the end of the overhang. I thought going straight up through the biggest overhang should somehow be possible. There are footholds from the Drift, right? It’s roughly a 60-degree overhang.

To my surprise, I could use those footholds, skip the entire detour, and reach the crux of Drift about three moves faster. So it’s less power-endurance, but definitely more cruxy. In Drift, the end part is the crux, but in Tokyo, the start is the crux. The real redpoint crux, though, is the final mantle/slab to the no-hand, which is an old 7B+ classic (very sandbagged). It doesn’t really play a role into the grade, but it makes it much harder to finish. And more complex and fun climb.

I fell on the top-out three times. Once I already thought that it’s done because I literally did the last hard move in the slabby part but my fingers were completely numb and I just dry/cold fired off. Two tries later, I managed to overcome the numbness and cold fingers and finish it after a huge fight.