Val Bavona

Val Bavona is a ten-kilometre-long trough valley in the Vallemaggia District of Ticino, Switzerland, sitting in the municipality of Cevio and reaching elevations typical of the southern Alpine fringe. Climbers and visitors encounter a steep, remote valley landscape rather than a single crag, and the area has long been an access corridor to both alpine routes and nearby lowland bouldering fields in Ticino.

The single film linked to this place, A Mellow Cresciano "New King Lines" (2021), uses Val Bavona as the starting point for a grounded, local story. When a snowstorm shutters climbing in the valley, the crew moves to Cresciano, the nearby Ticino boulder field that supplies most of the on-screen climbing. That pivot is part of the film’s appeal: it shows local decision-making, how a group reads conditions, and how intimate knowledge of season and access shapes a trip.

Viewers will meet Julianno Cameroni and a small cast of peers — Daisuke Ichimiya, Clément Lechaptois, Marine Thevenet and Diego Cameroni — and see work on both longstanding projects and newly developed lines on Ticino granite. The film foregrounds development work over highlight reels, so a viewer learns about link-ups, repeated attempts, and the collaborative way local climbers keep finding subtleties in well-trodden rock. In short, the film situates Val Bavona within a regional climbing culture and uses the nearby Cresciano boulder field to show how place, season, and friendship shape what gets climbed.