The Swiss boulderer has climbed Will Bosi's Kyanite in Ticino, likely the second ascent of the problem. It took him three sessions this autumn after a short look last season.

Marco Müller could hardly have asked for a better start to his Ticino season. The Swiss climber has repeated Kyanite (8C) in Valle Bavona, the hard left-hand finish to Axinite (8B+) that Will Bosi first climbed in April 2025. Müller posted the ascent as an Instagram reel, and Climbing History puts the date at 26 October. "Good start into ticino season with a 2nd (?) ascent of this banger!" he wrote. That question mark is his own. Climbing History also lists it as a likely second ascent, which would mean Kyanite waited about eighteen months for a repeat.

This one had been simmering for a year. After ticking Axinite, the right exit, Müller gave Kyanite a brief try last season. Then Bavona had to wait. He told 8a.nu he didn't make it back until about two weeks before the send, and the left exit took him three more sessions. His caption sums up the line. "It shares the same start as Axinite (8B+), but then goes out left adding another hard section, including this long, shouldery crux move." Long is the word that matters when you are 173 cm tall. In his own summary, the move left him "stretched to the max, from toe to tips".

Kyanite comes with a back story. It was a long-standing Dave Graham project until Will Bosi climbed it in two sessions on 25 April 2025. The Scot was in Switzerland for an Adidas Five Ten film project that also involved Giuliano Cameroni, and on the same trip he made the first ascent of Brain Rot (8C+) in Magic Wood. We covered both in Will Bosi’s Swiss first ascents. UKClimbing called Kyanite a left-hand version of Axinite. You start in the same place, climb the opening moves of Axinite, then break out left through a very steep roof. That makes roughly twice as many moves as Axinite, and the way back into the original line is a desperate gaston deadpoint. The rock, like most of the valley, is gneiss.

Some numbers for context. 8C is roughly V15 on the American scale, one step below 8C+ (V16). Axinite, at 8B+, sits around V14, so the left exit stacks one more grade on top of a problem that is already hard in its own right. Bosi needed two sessions for the first ascent. Müller needed three this autumn, plus that short look a season earlier.

Müller’s tick list this year is staggering. He’s already put down five 8C boulders and an 8C+ in 2026, a pace that makes his previous life as a rope climber feel like a different era entirely.

Not so long ago you would have found him on a rope. In 2023 he made the second ascent of Oblivion (9a) in Gimmelwald, and hard routes took him as far as Flatanger. He is a mechanical engineer by trade. These days it is bouldering only, and his explanation for this season is refreshingly plain. He points to "staying injury free, focusing only on bouldering for over a year now (and thus having more time to try stuff) and also projecting more boulders on my limit." Three sessions on an 8C with a single previous ascent suggest the recipe works.

He’s already eyeing Mystic River in Brione, though he’s at the mercy of the riverbed levels. It’s a classic Ticino gamble: you can be as fit as you want, but if the water doesn't drop, the project stays underwater.

Ticino, and Switzerland as a whole, keep serving up hard boulder news. Nicolai Užnik opened Full Gem (8C+) in Chironico, and Sam Weir climbed Permanent Midnight Low (8C+) in Fionnay. For another repeat that took its time, read how Elias Iagnemma made the first repeat of Pilgrim. More areas in the canton are on our Ticino page.

Sources: 8a.nu, Instagram (Marco Müller), Climbing History, 8a.nu (Bosi), UKClimbing, Up-Climbing, 8a.nu (Captain Nemo)

Cover: a boulder in Brione, Valle Verzasca, Ticino. This is not Kyanite and not a photo from the ascent. Photo: PhillipHicks, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. The image has been cropped.