For 35 Years, The World’s Best Climbers Couldn’t Send This Route. A Barefoot Teenager Just Did.

Until last month, Le Bombé Bleu was one of the world’s hardest open projects. But when it was finally sent on February 11, some 35 years after it was bolted, the deed wasn’t done by a veteran climber with cutting-edge gear, but by a 17-year-old kid, climbing barefoot.

Le Bombé Bleu (“The Blue Bulge”), located at the French crag Buoux, was one of the most infamous unclimbed sport routes in the world. Frenchman Marc Le Menestrel, a pioneering climber who made early ascents at 8c+ and 8B (5.14c and V13) in the 1980s and ’90s...