Chironico in Ticino (Switzerland) is maybe one of the most known bouldering spots in Switzerland and after sports climbing nearly the whole summer I was looking forward returning to Ticino. Together with Flo, Paul and Jan, I used the non-business days in Germany for another short boulder trip to Switzerland.

With about 800 boulder problems Chironico is a huge bouldering area and an amazing place to be especially in autumn. Then all the chestnut trees lost their brown leaves and you can enjoy the last warm days in Ticino trying your boulder problem in the wide area of Chironico. And although it was some non-business day in Germany Chironico was not too crowded. Instead, we knew most of the people there like Laura and Oskar from Innsbruck – which I met on my last bouldering trip to Switzerland. (Although the climbing sports is booming and more and more people are going to the climbing gyms, you are meeting always the same well-known guys on the rocks 😉 )
We had about four days of bouldering and we tried a lot of problems – more or less successful. The most outstanding ones were these four problems:
1) „Souvenir“ (8a/+) | „Souvenir“ is a short steep boulder opened by Fred Nicole (but sadly pretty defined). Flo had tried this boulder already on his last trips, but he had to leave it unclimbed – and if you have to leave such a project for a long time it is always bitter. But now he was much better in shape and he took it down within a few tries and climbed his first boulder in this grade 🙂 . |
2) „3° Cane“ (8a) | This one is a steep roof and you need some fancy hook skills and a lot of power if you want to climb that one. Paul had both and showed us how to do it. Flo and I struggled with a weird toe-hook … and I still don’t get it how Paul did it so easily. |
3) „Slimeline“ (7c) | An impressive highball boulder with a powerful start. It took us a while to get the right beta for the top out: checking out the dynamic moves in about 5m height feared us a little bit because every failure could lead to some bad injuries … But in the end, we all did the top out – but only Paul was able to add the crux at the beginning. But it is a stunning boulder for sure and one you should try if you are in Chironico. |
4) „Fatboy“ (7c+) | A nice compression boulder. The cool thing is that there a lot of holds and possibilities to climb that one – but all the ways are somehow challenging. I really liked the climbing at that sloping granite rails. |
