On Friday, March 28th, Kate Kelleghan, a 31-year-old climber from Boulder, Colorado, and Laura Pineau, a 24-year-old climber from Toulon, France, set the women’s speed record on the Naked Edge (5.11b) in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado. The pair climbed the five-pitch route “bridge to bridge” in 37 minutes 8 seconds, shaving 38 seconds from the previous record, set in 2021 by Kelleghan and Becca Droz, of 37 minutes 40 seconds.

Racing the Edge

After a morning warm-up lap on the route, Kelleghan and Pineau started their clock and raced across the bridge over South Boulder Creek. Sprinting toward the Red Garden Wall, they soloed ~200 feet of 5.8, the lower pitches of Anthill Direct, and reached the start of the Naked Edge in approximately 9 minutes.

From there, Pineau rested for two minutes and belayed the more experienced Kelleghan, who led the route. Kelleghan jammed up the first pitch, a 5.11a finger crack, and continued up the 5.10b arête second pitch. As she neared the second pitch anchor, Pineau began climbing at the end of their 28-meter rope. Kelleghan cruised through the 5.8+ moderate cracks of the third pitch, and then launched up the 5.11b bomb-bay chimney to layback boulder problem to steep hand crack. As Kelleghan finished up the 5.6 crack at the top, Pineau climbed behind her on a terrain belay, racing up the route in approximately 21 minutes as Kelleghan began walking down, still tied in.

The pair protected the simul-climbing with three micro-tractions, allowing Pineau to potentially fall without Kelleghan feeling her weight. After having climbed the route 75 times, Kelleghan knew where Pineau would be while the pair simul-climbed and kept a few pieces between them. Kelleghan, who took most of the risk of the ascent, placed nine cams and clipped nine pieces of fixed protection, including bolts, pitons, and fixed stoppers.

When they reached the summit, Pineau untied and the pair blitzed down the East Slabs, which included some 5.0 moves, in around seven minutes.

Kelleghan and Pineau knew the previous record was 37:40. After a broken shoelace slowed them, they worried that they’d lost precious time.

They were right. By the time both climbers had touched the center of the bridge—the unofficial finish line—their watch read 37:50, 10 seconds too late.

A Dream Team

Kelleghan, an avid speed climber and former Yosemite Search and Rescue member, had been searching for a female speed partner for years before she finally met Pineau over social media in 2024. That October, Pineau made a notable ascent of Greenspit (5.13d/8b), a 15-meter trad route in Valle Del’Orco, Italy. She had only started trad climbing two years prior.

Kelleghan pitched speed climbing and Pineau, fresh from her successful roof project, traveled to Yosemite in late October, where the pair climbed a day on the Nose. Then, this past winter, Kelleghan headed to Toulon, where they tackled a few multipitch routes in Destel and practiced thirty pitches of simul-climbing. Their first big goal as partners would be in March, when the athletes would test their speed on Kelleghan’s hometown racetrack, the Naked Edge.

“I’m teaching Laura to speed climb, and this was a perfect milestone,” said Kelleghan. As soon as Pineau got to Colorado, she climbed the Naked Edge with local Matt Reeser, who cruised up the pitches and placed little gear. The thought of speed climbing on the route initially terrified Pineau, who admitted, “No one in Europe does speed climbing.”  In the following days, Kelleghan steadily trained Pineau in her tactics from sixty-odd Naked Edge laps. The pair would do a warm-up run and then a timed run, climbing the route in one hour 10 minutes, then 54 minutes, then 44 minutes, and finally, in 37:50.

In the United States, speed climbing’s main arena has been on the Nose of El Capitan. From a 47-day campaign on the first ascent, the time to ascend the 3,000-foot line has been whittled down to a blazingly fast four hours.

In the last decade, The Naked Edge has become Colorado’s local racetrack In 1964, Layton Kor and Rick Horn made the route’s first integral ascent by aid and free climbing the technical cracks, chimneys, and faces of the sandstone arête. Seven years later, Jim Erickson and Duncan Ferguson made the first free ascent.  Like the Nose, the prominence of the route, the popularity, and the ease of access tempted climbers to move faster on the sandstone.  In 2012, the Colorado climbers Stefan Griebel and Jason Wells went “bridge to bridge” in under an hour. A friendly competition began between Brad Gobright, Scott Bennett, Griebel, Wells, and others, who whittled the time down until Joe Kennedy and Griebel set the current record of 22:44 on October 22, 2022. While the men’s time quickened, Kelleghan recruited fellow Boulder climber Becca Droz to set a new women’s record in 2021.

Last Go, Best Go

Standing by the bridge on March 28th, Kelleghan and Pineau processed their ten-second miss. The forecast showed incoming snow, so they decided to give it one more go. After a few hours of rest, they re-warmed up by climbing The Bomb, a short 5.4 on Wind Tower.

On the descent, Pineau realized that she could run down the East Slabs in her TC Pros. Her approach shoes’ broken laces wouldn’t be a problem. However, after blitzing through the morning, the fatigue of a second lap threatened to end their Naked Edge aspirations. Still, they geared up for a final attempt.

“My legs and my arms were already on fire when we started,” said Pineau. But this time—their ninth time climbing the route together—Kelleghan reached the base 30 seconds faster than on their previous attempt.

They were back in the game, tracking for the record. They raced through the climb, with Kelleghan’s heart rate averaging 173 beats per minute and Pineau’s averaging 162.

When they reached the top, Pineau untied and started running, intentionally not putting on her shoes. She bolted past Kelleghan, who coiled the rope and dashed down the East Slabs behind her.

As Kelleghan slapped her hand on the bridge, Pineau stopped the clock at 37 minutes and eight seconds—a new milestone for both the Naked Edge and for women moving fast on rock.

“It’s important to see women represented in the speed climbing world,” said Kelleghan, who has become a fixture of women’s speed climbing. Beyond Eldorado Canyon, Kelleghan has also become a must-watch climber in the Yosemite speed game. In summer 2024, she and Michelle Pellette climbed two El Capitan routes in a day: the Nose in eight hours 45 minutes and Lurking Fear in nine hours 45 minutes. They were only the second female team in history to climb El Capitan twice in 24 hours.

There has been a steady increase of women speed climbing in Eldorado Canyon. When Kelleghan and Droz set their 2021 record, only a few women had led the route in a single pitch: the two of them and Madeline Sorkin. Recently, Boulder climber Lynn Anderson joined the mix, setting the female-male partner Naked Edge record with Jack Neus in 28 minutes 32 seconds on September 13, 2024. Kelleghan suspects that the women’s record could go sub 30 minutes, but says that she and Pineau have other summer objectives. For now, their record will remain until another pair of women steps up.

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