Štěpán Volf FA’s Valašský express (8C)

Štěpán Volf has done the FA of Valašský express (8C) in Moravský kras. ”Longest Boulder project till date. Around 8 moves 8A+/B, into basically just 4 moves of 8B/B+. Pure power in the roof with Bat hang rest in the middle of the Boulder on this weird crack. Almost everytime wet, super happy to finnish this project of before China!”

Can you tell us more about the FA?
The last hold of the first part, Cheating Power (8B), is actually the start hold of the second half, Muscle Power (8B), so I am bit surprised no one had already done it. The whole thing has no more than 15 moves, but the hardest are actually two sequences with feet adjustment. I love climbing in the roofs so this line was pretty obvious line for me to try. The proces was kind of long, first part is almost every time wet so most of the sessions I was just practising second part, till I was able to do it two times in a row. Then I was just waiting till the Boulder was finally dry and luckily enough, I sent it in first dry session.

What is happening in China and can you tell us more about the bat hang?
There is World cup in lead in couple of days and I am going there with the Czech team as a Coach.

In the middle of the two sections there is an open crack where you can rest afrer jamming your feet, but to really rest there properly it requires a lot of toehooking strength. I could hang there around 30 seconds. But you need to save some energy because right after this rest there is hard sequence where you still need that toehook power. Luckily, toehooks are my strong skill.