'Every pitch was practically choreographed. We climbed about fifty pitches each, and we knew exactly where each cam, nut, and existential crisis would go'.

---

At the beginning of June, after a month and half of 'excessive' training load, Kate Kelleghan and Laura Pineau linked together ascents of Mount Watkins, The Nose on El Capitan, and Half Dome in 23 hours, 36 minutes, and 40 seconds.

In doing so, they became the first women to climb the Yosemite Triple Crown, a big-wall challenge that takes in almost 30km of hiking in and amongst the roughly 2.5km of vertical climbing.

We caught up with them earlier this week to ask how they prepared for this historic undertaking, what it felt like to look up at Half Dome with Mt. Watkins and The Nose already under their belts, and which moments they remember the most fondly...

---

Kate, Laura, congratulations on climbing the Yosemite Triple Crown! When did this challenge first come onto your radar, and how did you end up coming together as a team?

Kate: I have been speed climbing in the valley for five years now, so the Triple was on my radar pretty much as soon as I knew what a "NIAD" was. I climbed the Double (El Cap and Half Dome) with Miles Fullman, and as soon as I topped out on that, I began looking for a triple partner. Finding a woman who was capable, psyched, and fun took two years. I had to import her from France.

Laura: The Triple Crown first hit my radar in April 2023, during my first real climbing season in Yosemite. Everyone was obsessed with how fast they were going on a "NIAD" which I initially thought was some sort of vitamin supplement, but turns out it's just short for The Nose In A Day.

Yosemite has this speed climbing culture that doesn't really exist anywhere else unless you count the Naked Edge in Boulder, which is more of a vertical sprint. 

Fast-forward to April 2024, a friend mentioned a YOSAR (Yosemite Search and Rescue) badass woman looking for a Triple Crown partner. My brain just went: "Why not me?" I DM-ed her on Instagram like, "Hey, I'm maybe interested in going really fast up terrifying granite faces, but I've never done it before." My first NIAD (12h36min) sealed the deal—I was in, even if the goal still felt galaxies away.

It sounds like you adopted an extraordinarily scientific approach to your preparation, relying on the data from your watch to guide your training - what insight did this provide and how did it guide you within the lead-up?

Kate: The Coros Vertix is the only watch that tracks climbing to such an accurate degree and also tracks all the other stuff a smartwatch would. We giggled as it told us our training load was "excessive" for six weeks straight. But we compared our sleep metrics, overnight HRV, and stress scores to track which burns were costing us energy and how that would dictate our schedules. Each formation demands a different type of stress, whether that was cardio fatigue, sleep deprivation, or mental stress.

Laura: Oh yes, we basically trained like ultra runners who got lost and ended up on a wall. Our Coros watches were our high-tech babysitters—constantly reminding us that no, we hadn't recovered yet, and yes, we were still very tired.

Sleep and recovery were our biggest data obsessions. After every Big Wall, we would stare at our watches like stockbrokers on caffeine, tracking how long it took to bounce back. Usually, two rest days did the trick. Sometimes we needed three, because crack climbing will wreck your soul and your forearms.

By week seven, our watches were screaming "Nope!"—we were hitting a wall before we even touched one. That's when we called it, rested for real, and prepped for an attempt.

Given the size of the day out, how did you go about fuelling yourself?

Kate: We treated this like an ultramarathon, which worked. We drank our carbs, and planned eating and fueling on every leg of the adventure. We had the entire bag of tricks - drinkable carbs, gummies, bars, peanut butter sandwiches, mashed potatoes, burritos, and a little caffeine for when it got dire.

Laura: Fueling was basically its own discipline. We consulted our cardio-nutrition wizard friends—aka people who think a 100-mile run is a fun weekend plan.

On every wall, our water was a soup of electrolytes and carbs. We lived on high-carb bars and gummies that we could choke down while belaying each other, because nothing says "fine dining" like shoving a sticky gummy into your mouth while dangling 2,000 feet up.

Climbing fast makes eating tough, so drinkable calories were definitely our big cheat code. Not a single cramp in two months of speed climbing, that's not luck, that's nutrition alchemy.

How many times did you do each of the various routes together before the big day?

Kate: Watklins and The Nose four times, Half Dome only twice. We were BARELY fast enough by the time we had scheduled our push. It was still a big question mark.

Laura: We rolled into Yosemite in early April, hoping for a June attempt. Then it rained... a lot. I also got a nasty food poisoning and was out for ten days, which really upped the drama.

We didn't hit our time goals until the very last training week. Classic underdog movie timing. But that final push gave us the boost we needed to say: "Okay. We're ready to go do something insane."

To what level of detail did you have the routes dialled? Did you know exactly where you were going to place each piece of gear, where you were going to pause for a brief moment, how long you'd rest for, etc?

Kate: I have every piece of gear on every pitch Iead memorized, along with all the tricky moves and all the shenanigans and logistics as a follower, going from jumaring to simulclimbing and back for some parts of the route. It's a giant microbeta game.

Laura: Every pitch was practically choreographed. We climbed about fifty pitches each, and we knew exactly where each cam, nut, and existential crisis would go.

Kate and I nerded out hard—we'd debrief before and after each climb, swapping notes and refining tiny beta like we were studying for granite finals. We're both Type A wall rats, so obsessing over details came naturally. Still, Big Walls are like toddlers: even with a plan, something's gonna go wrong. Our motto? "Shit is gonna happen, and we'll deal with it."

What gear did you use throughout?

Kate: Everything from a double rack, some microcams, offsets, camhooks, and a stiffy made out of a stick and tape because we forgot ours on the day. Totems are crucial for the pin scars. Ocun jammies lived through the whole season without a single tear.

Laura: Gear varied per wall, but our heaviest rack was for The Nose, we don't link up often, so we needed more cams and draws to stay safe. Kate, being the speed climbing Jedi she is, made sure we used the lightest gear possible. Every gram counts when your harness feels like a small appliance store. Totems were our MVPs: light, reliable, and the best cams for Yosemite granite.

Were there any specific systems you used in order to speed yourself up?

Kate: So many systems… short fixing, simulclimbing with microtraxions, a mix of the two, swinging, throwing ladders to each other… you name it.

Laura: For The Nose and Mount Watkins, we used a block leading system. One of us led the bottom half, fixing rope at every anchor, while the other jugged behind with ladders, cleaning gear, and saving juice for the top half.

Half Dome was its own beast, we simul-climbed the first nine pitches (I led), then Kate took over for more simul through the chimneys up to Big Sandy. I finished the lead to the top.

A massive day out like this isn't 'just' about the climbing, it's about the bits in between too, because there's quite a lot of up/down and distance in between each. How did you prepare for those in-between bits?

Laura: We weren't just trying to finish, we wanted sub-24 hours, just like the guys. That meant everything had to be dialed. We had a fifteen person support crew (yes, fifteen!) organizing gear shuttles, food handoffs, driving, and logistics.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that planning those transitions took five full days. It felt like coordinating a moon landing. Our "rest days" became "organize-an-army days." But without that team, our 23h36min finish would've just been a dream with good PR.

Kate: We planned EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. I mean there wasn't a single question mark or unknown about every part of the day.

Speaking of the support crew, can you explain a bit more about their role and the impact they had on the day?

Kate: Our support crew is the reason we succeeded, hands down. We divvied up responsibilities to the friends we knew we could rely on, and based on their skills. It worked out perfectly and the best part of the whole thing was seeing their faces on top and inbetween.

Laura: Our support crew was basically a pit crew, hiking team, catering service, and emotional support unit all rolled into one.

My mom hiked the most heinous gear-carry section with our friend Michael, and still made it to the top of Half Dome the next day. Iconic. Everyone on the crew pushed themselves outside their comfort zone to help us pull this off. It was a group dream, not just a duo dream.

Did you manage to stay on track time-wise throughout the big day, or were there some moments where you felt you might be slipping behind, or where you began to doubt it might still be possible?

Laura: We started off fast, Watkins in 4h15min, ahead of our goal. Big morale boost. Then The Nose hit. Kate was feeling gassed, and jugging in the pre-dawn heat was brutal. We both led slower than usual and were also dealing with dehydration at the top of the Nose. 

Still, we topped out at 6:15 am, barely on track, but not out of the game. The turning point came on Half Dome, when we reached Big Sandy with two hours to spare. We were like, "We've got this." I told Kate to hit me with time checks every 30 minutes. From there, it was game on.

Kate: We never knew we had it until the final pitches on Half Dome, so needless to say it was stressful. We had to basically PR on every route.

Let's go back to the start of the day - how did you feel setting out to Mount Watkins? The approach alone must have been quite a rude awakening!

Kate: It was hot but we didn't have to carry anything. We also had almost seven full days of rest, so we were physically very ready. Mentally we had been waiting so long and just needed to at least try.

Laura: Surprisingly… peaceful? No gear, no pressure yet, and we were just soaking up the views with my mom and Michael. It felt like the calm before the chaos. I remember laughing a lot and thinking: We've got this. Let's go big.

Once you'd started things off, did you feel like you were able to get into the flow quite quickly?

Kate: I was until the thunderstorms began. Then all I was thinking was "get through the 5.9R before the rain unleashes." Luckily it never unleashed. After that initial stress scare, it just melted into a pure performance and execution dance.

Laura: Instant flow. On the first few moves of Watkins, it was like my body already knew it was going to be a great day. My feet, my hands, they were just doing their thing. That early rhythm was magic.

Once you topped that first route, how quickly did you transition from climbing to running mode?

Kate: Very quickly. Friends were in place and ready to go, just as planned.

Laura: No time wasted. The stoke was high, the legs were fresh (ish), and the crew was dialed. We didn't run, but we power-hiked like two caffeinated mountain goats. Thanks to our well-oiled transition plan, everyone knew their jobs, and the gear handoff was smooth.

The Nose is an exceptionally popular route, did you have any issues with traffic, or was everyone quite understanding?

Kate: If you treat people with kindness, they usually do so in return. That's the mentality I like to bring up the wall, and the whole season we were met with so much kindness and made tons of new friends. Luckily on the Triple day, there was nobody on route!

Laura: Honestly? Yosemite climbers are awesome. I coined a term this season: "haulbaggers" (multi-dayers with giant bags) vs. "speed climbers" (us light-and-fast weirdos). We passed as many as seven teams in one day, and every single crew was kind, helpful, and stoked.

We always made sure to be safe and respectful, because when you're on a wall, kindness matters more than speed. Plus, if anything goes sideways, you're each other's backup plan.

How did Half Dome feel after everything you'd already done?

Kate: So sluggish. I thought there was no way we were going to pull it off in 24 hours, and I prayed we would just get to the top…

Laura: Surprisingly solid—until it wasn't. After my lead block on the lower pitches, I was static belaying Kate for forty minutes and started dozing off… at the anchor. It was like my body remembered we'd skipped a full night of sleep and was not cool with it.

I slapped my own face to stay awake, classic alpine strategy. But once I started moving again, I got a second wind. Energy is weird like that. The human body is wild. I learned that I can go way further than I thought.

Finally, are there any small moments that stick out from the day, which you think of particularly fondly?

Kate: Hearing the yells and hollers of our friends, seeing their faces as they took on their role and how the whole community really bonded together for the event. Seeing our people at the top of Half Dome was really special. More than anything just finishing safely and knowing we were done with speed climbing for a while!

There was a group of my best friends watching from Sugar Pine beach as we finished, and that's the most fun for me to imagine, as they were just chattering updates and our time and status.

Laura: One moment I'll never forget: topping out Half Dome and seeing no one waiting for us. Turns out, our videographers could not go down on static ropes because of an incoming storm. We saw lightning in the distance, and then found out the static was so intense, tourists' hair was standing on end.

Our friends told us to ditch our metal gear, and helped us descend fast. We were in total post-send euphoria, blissfully unaware we were basically in a human toaster. I'll never forget the intensity and the love that got us down safely.