Interview: After Bombé Bleu (5.15b), Erwan Legrand shows us how to climb barefoot

Erwan Legrand’s ascent of Bombé Bleu, 9b/5.15b, is one for the history books. 

Not just because it’s an ascent of a 35-year-old project that has stopped some of the best climbers in the world, but also because of the method: barefoot climbing.

Chris Sharma, Fred Rouhling, Charles Albert, Nicolas Perlorson, Alex Megos, and many more  weren’t able to send, but Legrand, sans shoes, was able to pull it off. 

In this case, it wasn’t just a flex from the 17-year-old, who is the son of legendary competition climber François Legrand.

It was actually key to sending the project. The route is filled with awkward, small pockets.

Legrand told Gripped that this was the right terrain for barefoot big-toe monos that presented a clear advantage over climbing with shoes. 

And while this might seem like an outlier, Legrand said that an average climber can benefit from some barefoot climbing even if they aren’t trying to send a legendary project. 

Having started barefoot climbing on his home wall at the age of five, Legrand was able to spend a significant amount of time during his childhood climbing without shoes, at one point putting in five barefoot days a week. 

While he no longer spends that much time climbing without shoes, Legrand told Gripped that the average climber still can benefit from that practice. Body positioning, flexibility and intuition are all things that barefoot climbing can teach a climber.

What follows below are excerpts from a talk Legrand had in March with Gripped over a video call from France. 

In it, he mused about the proposed grade of Bombé Bleu while also giving us tips on how we, too, could become barefoot crushers. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

 

Gripped:  Do you think a route like Bombé is only possible with bare feet? You gave it 15b. What do you think the grade would be if it was climbed with shoes?

Legrand: I think a soft 9b+, 5.15c. I’m not sure, because I didn’t try too much with shoes. Because I instantly realized it was better. For me, it changes quite a lot. But I think not more than one grade higher.

 

Gripped: I think a lot of people were really surprised that you graded it 5.15b/9b. Like, a lot of people were thinking,’ Oh, 15d, or maybe 16a,’ or something like that. What do you make of that? Do you think you’re maybe undergrading yourself there?

Legrand: I don’t think so. I think most people don’t really realize that the route is very hard, but the fact that it hasn’t been done before, doesn’t mean it’s crazy, crazy hard. 

Even very strong people have tried it, but it’s very specific. Very, I think, fingery. And kind of technical in some ways. You know, it’s like, it looks like it’s just a question of strength, but there is a lot of tricky, tricky beta.

And I think also barefoot climbing makes a difference. I think the difficult part is about 15 or 16 moves.

So it’s very, very short. There are boulders that are longer in effort than this. 

If it was just above the ground, it could be a highball. Like, maybe V15 or V16, I don’t really know. 

So with shoes, you have very bad feet on a huge overhang. At the beginning, about 60 degrees, and at the end it’s maybe more like 40 degrees, but very, very overhanging all the way of the hard section. 

And it’s hard to make good use of the other footholds, because they’re just pockets. There are nothing but pockets on this wall. And so for the feet, it’s hard, especially with shoes. 

But barefoot you can find tricks to get your big toe in the pocket. The pockets are only two-finger pockets for the fingers. 

So you have to try to develop some flexibility in the toes. 

When you get in the pockets, you have to get just your big toe in it. The others are blocking you to get inside.

So you have to develop some flexibility to get only [the big toe] up and the others down, and get in the pockets. This, I think, for people at the beginning, it can be very weird. 

 

Gripped: What do you think about the average climber developing their barefoot skills? Would that help them in their climbing life? 

Legrand: I think it could be a good thing. For me, it has been very, very good, I think, for developing my instincts for the positions of the body. Because I was on my home wall, doing boulder problems with all the holds I wanted for the feet. Not just selecting a few footholds for the boulder. So it was just trying to get the best position possible with all the holds out of my reach.

And then you find some pretty good body positions. Always the optimal body positions and foot placements.

So I think for outdoor projecting…then you just follow your instincts, and you maybe have a more open mind about which holds you should use and everything. So yes, I think that’s now one of the main reasons I’m pretty good at finding good beta and these kinds of things on redpoint projects.

 

Gripped: How does the average climber get started barefoot climbing?

Legrand: The problem is that if you don’t have a home wall, the only option left is going outside at the crag or bouldering. But I don’t know if it’s really good to climb outside barefoot in general. I think maybe if I got used to it, it could feel good. But for now, for most of the routes, it’s not very nice. If you have a home wall, it’s just perfect. You can do whatever you want and go barefoot.

 

Gripped: Are there drills or anything that you would recommend someone with a home board or climbing outside to try?

Legrand: I think when using your feet on the wall, you almost only use your big toe. I’m not talking about pocket climbing, but just barefoot climbing in general, you mostly use your big toe. Imagine your foot on the wall: it faces in this direction with shoes. 

*Legrand raises his hand into a high-five position. Then he rotates it outward 45 degrees.* 

And with barefoot you have to kind of open the legs out to the side and climb like that with the feet, maybe like a duck. Yes, it’s quite funny.

I think for hip mobility it’s quite good too. I’m not very flexible in general. I have bad mobility, but I have good hip mobility. I can open my legs very, very easily. So yes, I think barefoot climbing is good for that.

And I think more than shoe climbing, it’s easier to do drop-knees barefoot. And don’t be scared of weird positions. Sometimes you get your feet crazy high or into some weird positions. You have to be open to using your body in ways you’re not used to.

 

Gripped: Is there conditioning you do for your feet? How do you get them tough enough to climb barefoot?

Legrand: I never trained outside of climbing for my toes, so I think yes, in the beginning, it can be painful. I think for most people, especially if you’re putting a lot of weight on your toes, it can be painful. But once you’re used to it, it’s okay. It’s less painful than for the skin of the fingers. So that’s okay.

And for strength, I think it just develops by climbing barefoot. You train your feet like that. I don’t know if there are exercises to do. 

I don’t really know. I never did. You don’t need that much strength in your toes to climb barefoot. You don’t need more than, I think, just climbing.

 

Gripped: *Chuckling* There’s not like a hangboard you use for your toes or anything like that? 

Legrand: No, that would be funny but I never did. Until I was maybe 12 years old, I never trained on anything else than just climbing on the wall. I was climbing for training. Nothing like hangboarding or pull ups or anything else. I think you don’t need to train specifically your toes to be a good barefoot climber. So, nothing special on this side.

 

Gripped: Any last words before we finish here?

Legrand: I think on my ascent, it has been a painful feeling for my toes, very painful. I never struggled that much with the skin of my toes before on a climb. So I think, like most of the climbs are okay for the skin. And yes, this one was destroying my toes. So that wasn’t very good. 

I think, just listen to your instincts to climb well barefoot.

The post Interview: After Bombé Bleu (5.15b), Erwan Legrand shows us how to climb barefoot appeared first on Gripped Magazine.