Bruce Zou ticks Pegasus (8C) barefoot

Bruce Zou, with four 8B+’ under his belt, has done Pegasus (8C) in Joe's Valley (UT). ”Barefoot feels great on this one.”

How come you ended up doing it barefoot?
I sprained my ankle in the mid of the trip and was not able to put a climbing shoe on the right foot. The other day I got my left heel swollen too because of Achilles heal. So there was no option other than barefoot. But I have been training my toes all the time for “The Game” in Colorado. So it’s not too bad for me to figure out all the barefoot beta on Pegasus. And I thought this could be a perfect pre test before trying hard on Game so I stick to send barefoot.

Can you tell us more about your project process on The Game (8C)?
I started working on Game 2018 after I did my first 8B, a bit unrealistic but still managed to do some easy moves on that. 2019 and 2020 I was just projecting more 8Bs and 8B+ but keep thinking about how I can improve my self on the game. However even after I did my second 8B+ I still couldn’t do the crux on the game and that’s because I was using shoes…

I got this idea and thought maybe barefoot will help with the tension since shoes are limiting my lower body. And Game is so hard that shoes don’t play too much importance in this case.

I took shoes off and immediately did two crux moves that day. And then it took me one whole year to figure out all the barefoot moves. They make the crux possible but the easy move much harder. So I trained my toes for years… only for this boulder. I have had about 80+ session on The Game starting from 2021.

What is your climbing background?
I am just an amateur climber though…no athletic background. Simply love outdoor climbing.