Celestite 8C

Celestite is an 8C boulder problem on river-polished rock in Val Bavona, Switzerland. The line climbs a near-vertical edge through a string of knee bars and toehooks, the kind of sequence where body tension and precise foot placement matter as much as raw finger strength. At 8C (V15) it sits among the small handful of boulders in the world confirmed at that grade, and climbers who have repeated it describe the beta as intricate rather than brutal in any single move.

History

Dave Graham made the first ascent in 2023, originally proposing 8C+. Only Francesco Berardino and Pietro Vidi repeated it before Adam Ondra, and both of them, along with Ondra, felt that with a refined sequence the problem sits at 8C rather than 8C+. Ondra flashed it on February 28, 2026, using beta passed on by Vidi and Giuliano Cameroni and wearing two kneepads to match Graham's approach. It was his third career 8C flash, a distinction only a few climbers in the world hold, and it came three days after he flashed the nearby Lion's Share.

On film

3x 8C Flash in 2 Weeks (2026) documents Adam Ondra flashing three 8C boulder problems in Switzerland inside a fortnight: Lion's Share, Celestite, and Emotional Landscapes, a 2002 Klem Loskot testpiece that Ondra calls his proudest flash of the run. The film follows him through the attempts on Celestite itself, including the beta he was handed by Vidi and Cameroni and the humid afternoon conditions that helped on the river-polished rock.