3:50 am, June 3 – Yosemite Valley. Under the yellow light of their headlamps, with wreaths of flowers on their helmets, Yosemite locals Kate Kelleghan and Michelle Pellette started up The Nose on El Cap. Eight hours and fifty-four minutes later, they topped out. From there, they descended via the east ledges, re-racked, and headed back to El Cap to climb Lurking Fear. They began at 3:30 pm and topped out at 1:15 am, completing Lurking Fear in 9 hours and 45 minutes. Their total time was 21 hours and 35 minutes, marking them as the second female team to climb El Cap twice in a day.

The women’s record for The Nose is “4:43, set in October 2014 by Libby Sauter and Mayan Smith-Gobat, according to Rockclimbingyosemite.com. For Lurking Fear, the record is “7:47, set in September 2014 by Libby Sauter and Quinn Brett.”

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The first female team to climb El Cap twice in a day was Libby Sauter and Quinn Brett on October 28, 2014. According to Climbing, they completed The Nose in 8:25 and Lurking Fear in 9:07, finishing in a total of 21:17, 18 minutes faster than Kelleghan and Pellette.

“It’s cool because Libby and Quinn did it ten years ago,” says Michelle. “It’s kind of crazy to think no female team has done it since, at least as far as we’ve heard.”

I caught up with Kelleghan and Pellette shortly afterward. Over a two-hour phone chat, they shared their story while eating crusty bread called Crostini, that Kate had brought from Moxie in Colorado. Michelle added mozzarella, which they dipped in olive oil.

Kate Kelleghan

Kelleghan’s sponsors include Ocun and Arctery’x Colorado, and she’s an AMGA apprentice rock guide. Both Kate and Michelle work at Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR). Kelleghan joined the rescue team in August of last year, and this was her first full summer in Yosemite.

Speed climbing is in her blood, where she holds the women’s Naked Edge speed record in Eldorado Canyon, with Becca Droz, at 37:40. “The speed record is measured “bridge-to-bridge,” meaning the clock starts at the bridge leading toward Redgarden Wall over South Boulder Creek, and then ends when you tag the bridge again after descending the East Slabs,” wrote James Lucas in Climbing.

She also climbed the Casual Route on the Diamond on Longs Peak, Colorado, car-to-car, super fast. “My partner and I did it in just under seven hours, trailhead to trailhead,” she says. “The record is about 3.5 hours.”

The Casual Route is a seven-pitch 5.10a at 14,000 feet guarded with a grueling five-mile approach. Says Mountain Project, “Despite the popularity of the peak and the associated heavy travel, there are still plenty of loose rocks in here. Some have lost body parts to this.”

Unlike The Naked Edge or possibly other Colorado climbs, Yosemite records traditionally start when the team leaves the ground and end when they reach the summit of their final objective. Thus, Kate and Michelle did not count their car-to-car time for the El Cap double.

In addition to her climbing achievements, Kate is a musician who enjoys playing the guitar. When she was 13, she attempted to start playing on a Flying V (like Eddie Van Halen played in “Hot for Teacher” or Jimmie Hendrix played in the late ‘60s). But when she sat down in front of her instructor with that way over-the-top guitar, he laughed, put it away for later, and handed her a reasonable one.

Though today she regularly climbs The Nose in a day, her first time up it was over three days in July 23, 2020. After that it was always in a day.

Michelle Pellette

Michelle has been a part of Yosemite rescue since 2017. She first joined the helitack team and went on to spend six years on SAR. Today she is a park medic who divides her time between ambulance shifts in the valley, checking Half Dome permits, and participating in search and rescue operations. Both she and Kate are involved in rescues. “I do fewer SARs now, and my time is divided. I handle ambulance shifts in the valley and also hike up to Half Dome to check permits. When I’m in the valley, I occasionally assist with SARs, sometimes as part of the carry-out team, and other times as part of a hasty team to provide medical care, depending on the incident.”

Before their double ascent, Michelle had climbed The Nose 20 times, with most of those ascents completed in a single day.

Both athletes train for climbing by climbing—often doing The Nose multiple times in a season and focusing on key sections to improve efficiency. They also incorporate High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), weightlifting, and running into their routines.”

To sustain themselves during the marathon day, Michelle brought hard-boiled eggs for mid-route energy, while Kate brought bars. The night before the climb, they fueled up with a steak dinner.

Speed Climbing is Dangerous

“Speed climbing is dangerous, but I feel like we keep it pretty safe if that makes sense,” Kate says. “Like sometimes, you know, you shouldn’t fall but you’re in really easy terrain. Or if it’s a harder section, like you’re placing a piece.”

Over the years, giant falls have occurred while speed climbing El Cap. On the Salathe Wall (near the Nose), Tim Klein and Jason Wells died in a simul-climbing fall on June 2, 2018. Speed climber Quinn Brett broke her spine when she slammed into a ledge on The Nose in October 2017. In May 2018, seasoned speed climber Hans Florine broke his legs on The Nose. Tommy Caldwell took a 100-footer while attempting The Nose sub 2 hours with Alex Honnold in 2018 and walked away unscathed.

“Today, being on the SAR team is reassuring because we have established protocols and know what we’re doing. We even had mental health training today.”

It Takes a Village

Kate and Michelle wanted to give a shoutout to their support team, particularly YOSAR member Jack Keane. Despite having hiked the East Ledges numerous times recently, Jack carried gear, food, and water to the top of both climbs and offered essential moral support. He even went the extra mile by setting up lights and bringing pizza to the top of Lurking Fear. Additionally, Sam MacIlwaine, Chris Gay, and Chris Hinrichs played crucial roles in transporting them between climbs and assisting with logistics.

Previous Experience with Link Ups

I first became aware of Michelle when I was covering her fellow YOSAR members Danford Joost and Nick Ehman during their Yosemite Valley triple climb. A photograph of Michelle on the summit of Half Dome shows her supporting the team, dressed in a Sterling buff under a blue sun shirt, with an ear-to-ear smile. In the background, Nick is grabbing a steak from a Ziplock bag with his bare hands while his partner rests, sprawled out and asleep.

Kate has previously climbed both El Cap and Half Dome in a day with her friend and former YOSAR member Miles Fullman.

Prior to completing El Cap twice in a single day, Kate had climbed The Nose 15 times, while Michelle had done it 20 times. Additionally, Kate had climbed Lurking Fear three times, and Michelle had climbed it twice before their double ascent.

“We actually ended up rescuing people on both routes,” Kate says. “On The Nose, one party got their ropes stuck after rappelling off a chockstone instead of the anchor, for some reason. They were just about 10 feet below the bomber rappel anchors, which was odd.”

The team carried a double rack with a few triples for their El Cap double ascent, along with two extra small offsets (yellow and red BD 0.1/0.2 and the Melius 0.2/0.3 and 0.3/0.4), and one cam hook. They intended to bring slightly different gear for Lurking Fear but forgot to grab it from the car.

“Michelle was a bit bummed because we only had double 0.5s instead of triples, and we were one cam short of a black Totem,” Kate says.

“So we’re on pitch three of Lurking Fear, and this guy is rappelling down. He’s like, ‘I know you’re trying to speed climb and go light, but if you don’t mind grabbing my cams and returning them to me, I’ll give you my phone number.”

Seeing an opportunity, Kate recalls, “I asked, what are they? And he replied, ‘a black Totem and a 0.5.’ I immediately thought, yes, we will definitely take that.”

Running the PDL

I asked if they used the PDL, or Pakistani Death Loop, during the link-up.

This technique involves reaching an anchor, pulling up a large amount of slack, tying it off, and then climbing without a belay. In this scenario, they would ‘free solo’ bolt ladders, straightforward cracks, and easier terrain. Although still tied in, falls can be massive and potentially fatal.

Kate adds, “Yeah, for sure. There are a few pitches where we borderline free solo.”

“One of my biggest fears is when you’re climbing with your ladders hanging, and they get stuck like a nut in a crack just as you’re about to make a move. It’s a jarring halt to your progression, and you have no idea why it’s happening.”

Kate shares her thoughts on the PDL: “I oddly enter this weird zone where I don’t consciously think about the fall potential. I acknowledge it, but then it just fades away. I’m fully absorbed in the climb. I know the moves, I know the gear, and I’ve done it countless times. It’s always on terrain well within my comfort zone.”

“I’m never pushing it when I’m not clipped into a piece. The biggest fall I’d probably take was on pitch two of The Nose (during a previous ascent), which was around 15 to 20 feet.”

Freaky Deaky Spiders Guarding the Finish Line

The team climbed both routes without any falls. They reeled it in when things got serious and let the rope out when the terrain was straightforward.

Their training paid off because, within just one day, they were back to performing SAR operations and climbing again, without the multi-week muscle fatigue that plagues other teams after such an effort.

However, there was one thing that really unnerved Kate. Just a few hours before finishing their 5,000-vertical-foot day, some creepy crawlers emerged from the cracks.

“These giant spiders come out at night on El Cap, and I have a pretty big fear of spiders. At one point, I slowed down because the upper part of Lurking Fear was covered in vegetation, and there were so many spiders that I completely stalled out. I was exhausted and scared. Then, to make matters worse, my headlamp started dying. I found myself facing off with this big spider, and I had a little panic attack, just hanging on a cam, waiting for it to move or trying to get it to move.”

“At that point, Jack, our supporter, was on the Rocky Talkie, and I was radioing down to Michelle, explaining what was going on with the spider. Then Jack started shouting encouragement over the radio, which was pretty amazing.”

“I had Michelle send up new batteries so I could face down the spider, but it felt like it took forever. We were both getting frustrated with my slowdown. Finally, I put in the new batteries and told myself, ‘I need to shut off my brain, ignore the spider fear, and just climb as fast as I can.’ Then I got moving again.”

“I got really psyched when we reached Thanksgiving Ledge (the last big ledge before the top). I was just focused on going as fast as possible. Jack had brought up some twinkle lights, the kind you’d hang in outdoor spaces. So, when we reached the final anchor, he had them set up like a little arch, and we walked underneath them. He also brought up pizza, bubbly water, and coconut water.
I asked them what’s next.

Unlike Kate, Michelle hasn’t yet climbed El Cap and Half Dome in a single day, but she’s considering it as a future goal.

“We’ve been talking about the women’s speed record on Lurking Fear,” they added.