Every year hundreds of boulderers travel to southern Switzerland to climb on the perfect granite boulders surrounding the small villages of Cresciano and Chironico in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. This year I joined up with Red Chili team members Dani and Phil Hrozek and the two youngsters, Sammuel Adolph and Lukas Bolesch.

For me it was not the first time, but for somebody who normally shoulders his rope, it was a first to be watching people hanging around in freezing temperatures and being happy about it. After a few days I began to understand why — because of the grip of course!

I was deeply impressed with what I saw: perfect granite and some of the best climbers I know rocking blocks every day till the fingers were bleeding. We only had one day of perfect photo weather so I focused myself on the youngsters of the team, Sammy and Luki, who both sent their hardest problems of that week, FB 7c+.

We didn't have the best conditions by any means. Before I had arrived there was lots of snowfall but it was getting better and better and everybody was happy and still very psyched to climb. We weren't able to send all our projects but we'll be back again next year for sure!

Of course that trip was not enough to get all the photos I wanted, so I returned two months later with a little team of friends to get more photos. This time I had my focus on Heiko Queitsch who was searching out some nice first ascents. We of course climbed a lot of problems, all day long, met some good people, had a perfect time with wonderful conditions... and without snow.

For more information visit: redchili.de

See a photo gallery from this trip.

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