Aidan Roberts has made the first ascent of Unison 8C, in Ticino, Switzerland.

The overhanging boulder is relatively straightforward in style, with the crux being a combination of the size of the holds, the precision and control required for hands and feet, and the ability to co-ordinate the movements of both.

Aidan spotted the boulder on his first ever trip to Ticino, but the potential of the line was obscured by dirty holds and a poor landing. It was only when Shawn Raboutou re-introduced Aidan to the boulder last Autumn that he began to see its true potential.

Now back in Ticino in the early stages of an extended European trip, Aidan has switched his focus to establishing new and inspiring lines. Early on in the trip, he spent a rest day cleaning the holds of Unison, before returning with a larger group, including James Pearson, Caro Ciavaldini, and Giuliano Cameroni, and creating a 'log platform', that allowed the group to both try out the moves safely, and realise that 'the line was possible'.

Speaking to the difficulty of the boulder on instagram, Aidan said:

'We soon returned and I promptly settled on this sequence. It felt hard, the edges are small and required a lot of precision, the feet are similar and yet the true difficulty lie[s] in coordinating use of the two. I'd say the style suits me almost perfectly and after a good rest I was able to climb it on my first try from the beginning'.

'It's hard to gauge the difficulty, especially when this suits me so well. But consensus was that it was perhaps 8C. Hopefully future ascents will shine more light on it. But with the memories around this boulder, it feels not to matter so much and I hope others enjoy it similarly. Thank you for the spots and good times to those who helped'.