EDITION 18 - JULY 10, 2025
Your window into the stories, history, and ongoing work to preserve Yosemite’s climbing legacy.
A Note from the Editor
It’s Wednesday, July 9, as I write this in Mariposa, where temps are in the high 80s. It’s the last day in the foreseeable future (a week) in my weather app that shows temps this low. Tomorrow, it will be in the 90s, and this heat will persist through at least next week. Yosemite Village is expected to be cooler, in the mid-80s, for this next stretch.
Despite it being July, people are still climbing El Cap. Local Dan Leavitt from Marin County recently posted on Instagram, “2 NIADs (Nose in a Day) in a week! This spring and summer have been especially inspiring; there’s more love in this valley than anywhere. What a dream.”
And Justin Lawrence posted on Instagram, “Pete [Zabrok] hauling one of 3 massive loads of equipment after 3 weeks on the wall to complete his world record 67th independent route climbed up El Capitan. Congratulations madman. Love ya.”
In other news, Allison Pohle at the Wall Street Journal wrote: Trump Orders New Fees for Foreigners Visiting National Parks. Executive order to add surcharges on international visitors to Yellowstone, Yosemite and other parks.
Pohle continues: “National park staffing, and related funding, remains in flux... The park service has lost 24% of its permanent staff since January, according to an analysis of internal Interior Department data from the group released this week, while just over half of seasonal employees have been hired.”
Aidin Vaziri at the San Francisco Chronicle added in the story, “What Trump’s latest order means for national parks like Yosemite:”
“The order instructs the Department of the Interior to raise entry fees for non-U.S. residents at all national parks and federal lands that currently charge admission. This includes the annual ‘America the Beautiful’ pass, which provides access to hundreds of federally managed sites.”
In social media news, Hannah Poukish at the Sacramento Bee wrote, “‘Fantastic’ Yosemite campground named second-best on West Coast. What’s No. 1?”
She continues, “Upper Pines Campground, the largest of the Yosemite Valley’s three campgrounds, boasts more than 230 campsites with space for tents, recreational vehicles and trailers — each with its own picnic table, fire ring and food storage locker, according to the National Park Service.”
This week, we interviewed Kate Kelleghan to learn more about the video she’s co-producing with climbing partner Laura Pineau on their ascent of the Yosemite Triple Crown—Mt. Watkins, El Cap, and Half Dome in fewer than 24 hours.
Chris Van Leuven
Editor, Yosemite Climbing Association News Brief
YosemiteClimbing.Org
Kate on Mt. Watkins at sunset. Photo: Jacek Wejster
Kate Kelleghan Talks About Her Upcoming Movie on the Yosemite Triple Crown
Due out this spring, the film will debut in Europe before arriving in the U.S.
It’s been a month since Kate Kelleghan and Laura Pineau made history by becoming the first female team to climb El Cap, Half Dome, and Mt. Watkins in a day. When we caught up with Kelleghan today (July 9), she was in Boulder, Colorado, watching thunderstorms grow overhead. She said she has other link-ups in the works, but first—tomorrow—she leaves for Chamonix and the Dolomites for climbing and time with friends and family.
She and Laura plan to reconnect soon, but she doesn’t know exactly when they’ll combine long routes in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison. They also plan to speed climb in France at the Verdon Gorge.
“I’m getting ready to leave for one last little hurrah over in Europe,” she says. “Chamonix for a week, and then I’m going to spend 10 days in the Dolomites. So, I’ve just been honestly laying low here and just like catching up on life stuff that I put aside while I was out doing the Triple.”
I asked her about the status of the film she has in the works. She says French filmmaker Thibaut Marot is directing and co-producing (along with Laura and Kate) and helping craft and shape the story.
“We brought him on pretty early on before we even started training for the triple, and now he’s going over all the footage and starting to get a look at everything we have to put together a story.”
Kate continues, “The story is definitely centered on friendship and partnership. It’s about Laura and me meeting, becoming super tight over a shared goal, and ending up almost like sisters as we decided to go all-in with someone who was nearly a complete stranger. Then there are the steps we took to become partners for the first-ever female Triple.”
I asked her about how they overcame setbacks during the climb and reduced the risks.
“We were really lucky that most things went smoothly. By the time we arrived at Watkins, I suppose the morning's forecast had begun to change. And so then, as we were climbing Watkins that afternoon, that’s when the first thunderstorms rolled in, and that was definitely a little scary for me because my first pitch on the Triple is a 5.9 R.
“It was a pretty high-stress environment. I was following more on the first block, and we heard all the thunder rumbling and saw the clouds build, but as soon as we transitioned, I took over, and it was just tense, but like, we knew what we had to do.”
She remembered saying to Laura, “If it rains, not only is the climb over, but then we’re in this pretty dangerous situation.”
“It started to pitter-patter a few drops as I started the 5.9 R pitch, but it stayed dry and didn’t rain as I climbed through it. And then I even got a bit of a fire under me for the rest of the route, and we ended up cutting like an hour off of our best time on Watkins.”
A snafu happened at the base of Half Dome when they realized they didn’t have their “stiffy” quickdraws that would help them reach distant gear. Here, Jacob Cook (who completed the Triple Crown earlier this season with Brant Hysell) found two sticks at the base, grabbed two alpine draws, and wrapped them with athletic tape. Moments later, voilà, they were back in business.
“We ran into a storm on top of Half Dome, too, but at that point, Laura and I were just so tired, and we were just like in go-go-go mode.”
With the help of around 20 people, things had to fall into place for them as well. Other than those earlier setbacks, “honestly, the rest of the day went really smoothly, and everybody who we had asked to be in place for our support team was perfect.
“And we climbed the Nose through the night. It was hot, but it was fine. We just had the right people in the right places, and everyone really showed up and came through.”
All told, there were three triple teams this summer (only two succeeded). Kate called these groups the Triple-Triple Threat, and together, they worked through logistics and bounced ideas off each other. “That turned into like a super cool mini support community for the whole season, too,” she says.
Back to the film, Kate says she is interviewing other female speed climbers. This includes “my heroes in the speed climbing scene back in the day, like Libby Sauter, Quinn Brett, Josie McKee, and getting some of their stories and some of the footage of them doing like the Nose speed record.”
They will also bring in footage from those ascents.
“The Triple-Threat group we had this season was a big part of our fun and success (and we’ll include them). We’re probably going to use some of Jacob’s footage—he’s making a little video about the Triple—and hopefully incorporate it into our film. That way, we can show the community and team dynamic behind the whole thing instead of it feeling like just Laura and me against the world.”
The film, sponsored by Coros, “whose Vertix 2S watch was an integral part of our training for this goal,” says Kelleghan, will debut in April, premiering in Europe first and screening in the U.S. over the summer.
Left to right: Laura Pineau and Kate Kelleghan on top of El Cap. Photo: Thibaut Marot
Laura nearing the top of the Nose. Photo: Jacek Wejster
PHOTO OF
THE WEEK
Kate Kelleghan leading off the wild stance on the Nose. Photo: Jacek Wejster
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