Giuliano Cameroni repeats Dreamtime at Cresciano

There are certain boulder problems that, despite the passing years, continue to fuel people’s dreams. One of these is certainly - as the name itself suggests - Dreamtime, the problem at Cresciano freed at the start of the new millennium by Swiss powerhouse Fred Nicole. His ascent at the time was impressive to say the least, so much so that Nicole felt the problem heralded a new level of difficulty for which he suggested the mythical grade 8C. But the ascent was far more than just a grade. It was, above all, a beautiful climb, a perfect line of elusive crimps and slopers. Unmissable.

Dreamtime understandably immediately caught everyone’s attention, and while in 2001 young Austrian Bernd Zangerl bagged the first repeat, in the years that followed all the world's best tested themselves against nature’s gift. At times there was talk about modified holds, at a certain point a hold broke and was glued back in place, but the dream never stopped. And so, even if Dreamtime is no longer the hardest problem in the world, perhaps 15 years down the line it is something even more important: it has transformed into a rite of passage, a cutting-edge obligatory stop-off that all the best boulderers, sooner or later in their climbing career, must climb.

This holds true for Giuliano Cameroni, one of Switzerland’s most talented young climbers who over the last couple of years and without much ado has been amassing a superb climbing curriculum. Last year Cameroni sent various 8B+ and one 8C, The Story of 2 Worlds, but despite his valiant efforts during the past winters Dreamtime remained unclimbed. Until two days ago, when the 17-year-old finally managed to caress his dream. Exactly how much this means to him can be seen clearly in this video of the ascent. Beautiful.