Mystic River V15

Mystic River is a V15 (8C) boulder above the river at Brione, in Ticino, Switzerland, following a line of colorful, water-carved rock right at the water's edge. It is one of the harder problems to come out of the Ticino boulder fields in recent years, a short but sustained sequence that demands precise body tension on compact, polished holds typical of the area's riverside stone.

History

Local climber Giuliano Cameroni made the first ascent in January 2021. Visiting American climber Shawn Raboutou made the second ascent on the same day, an unusually fast repeat for a boulder at this grade. The problem is one of several V15s that Cameroni and Raboutou have traded first and second ascents on in the area, part of a broader run of hard Ticino boulders established in the years around 2021. It has since drawn other strong climbers to the valley, including James Pearson, who made the third ascent in February 2025, more than four years after the first ascent.

On film

The North Face presents: ALPHANE (Mellow, 2022) follows a group of climbers, including Shawn Raboutou, Matty Hong, Jimmy Webb, Daniel Woods, Felipe Camargo and Giuliano Cameroni, working cutting-edge boulders in Switzerland. Mystic River appears among the hard lines the team climbs during the trip, shown alongside the film's central thread of Raboutou's project on Alphane, as part of a broader picture of the current wave of V15 first ascents and repeats in the Ticino boulder fields.