Squalo Bianco V14

Squalo Bianco is an 8B+ (V14) boulder problem at Foroglio in the Valle Bavona, a granite valley in Ticino, Switzerland, known for its concentration of hard, striking lines on clean rock. It sits among a small group of test pieces in the valley that ask for very hard, compact sequences rather than the long, sustained power endurance found on some of the area's other highball problems, and its difficulty has made it a target for a short list of the world's strongest boulderers.

History

Giuliano Cameroni made the first ascent, developing the line as one of several hard new boulders he established in the Valle Bavona. It has since drawn a handful of strong repeaters, including Dave Graham, who described the pull to the final sloper as particularly hard, and Philipp Geisenhoff, along with other climbers at the top of the sport. The problem is regarded as one of the valley's more striking lines, both for its position on clean granite and for the sustained difficulty of its closing moves to the top.

On film

The North Face presents: ALPHANE (2022), directed for The North Face by Mellow, follows a small team of climbers, including Shawn Raboutou, Matty Hong, Jimmy Webb, Daniel Woods, Felipe Camargo, and Giuliano Cameroni, returning to Switzerland to work on cutting edge boulder first ascents. While the film's central thread follows Raboutou's work on the boulder Alphane, Squalo Bianco appears in the edit as one of the valley's existing hard test pieces the team climbs alongside that project.