The Beating Heart of Bouldering
While the title may resonate with a low-brow romance novel set in turn-of-the-century New England, this film is actually about terrifying Czech highballs.
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The Beating Heart… while the title may evoke a low-brow romance novel set in turn-of-the-century New England, this film is actually about Czech folk climbing terrifying granite highballs.
The most famous climbing area in the Czech Republic is the Elbe Valley, where staunch ethics, chalk bans and hardware limitations make for a gut wrenchingly “exciting” trad experience. As it turns out, the Czech also have a penchant for scary bouldering highballs. Who knew?
In this film, which has a weird early 1990s feel to it, we’re taken on a tour of the perfect granite blocs of Petrohrad, which lies 60 kilometers west of Prague. They even throw in some tips on spotting technique. The filmmaker’s opening gambit is slow, but stick with it cause the climbing’s pretty cool. Bonus points for spotting all of Ondra’s appearances.
Also watch VIDEO: WIDE BOYZ – Spradventure (Full Film)