Fast and Furious

Droz and Kelleghan blitz the Naked Edge in 37:40—the women’s speed record

On Sunday September 26, Becca Droz, a 31-year-old rock-climbing coach and instructor in Boulder, Colorado, and Kate Kelleghan, a 28-year-old visual designer also based out of Boulder, set the women’s speed record on the Naked Edge (5.11b) in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado, climbing it in a lightning-fast time of 37 minutes 40 seconds. The route, which is approached via a ~200-foot 5.8 “scramble” up the lower pitches of Anthill Direct, is generally done in five pitches at 5.11a (finger crack), 5.10b (arête pitch), 5.8+ (moderate cracks and ramps), 5.11b (bomb-bay chimney to layback crux to exit hand crack), and 5.6 (exit slabs), comprising 460 vertical feet of climbing. 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.

The pair have been whittling their time down this past summer, moving increasingly quickly as they made their twenty-ninth and forty-fourth ascents of the route, respectively.

Layton Kor and Rick Horn made the route’s first integral ascent in 1964 by aid and free climbing the technical cracks, chimneys, and faces of the prominent sandstone arête. Seven years later, Jim Erickson and Duncan Ferguson made the first free ascent of the iconic Colorado climb. In 2012, the Colorado climbers Stefan Griebel and Jason Wells broke an hour with a bridge-to-bridge ascent of 49 minutes. The speedy climbers began a competition with Brad Gobright and Scott Bennett, sharing tactics on how to climb faster. With the friendly rivalry, Griebel and Wells dropped their time to 29 minutes and 29 seconds. Then, in May 2020, John Ebers and Ben Wilbur set the current speed record of 24 minutes 14 seconds.

Throughout their efforts, Droz and Kelleghan have refined their rack to an 80-foot rope, 21 pieces of pro (comprising cams, draws, and slings), and three Mini Traxions. They also rely on knowledge of where each climber is on the route to help protect them as they simul-climb, minimizing risk by only having a few sections of climbing with fewer than four pieces between them. (The Naked Edge also has fixed gear, including bolts, pitons, and bolted belays, that they clip.) “I don’t think we push it nearly as far to the edge of physicality because we’re both being mindful of not increasing risk,” says Droz. “There’s a way to make speed safe.”

“The trick is doing two laps in a row,” continues Droz, noting that they set personal records each time they’ve done that. After a sunrise warmup lap on the route, the pair starts by running from the bridge to the base of Redgarden in roughly two minutes. There, they free-solo Anthill Direct (5.8) through the infamous “cave pitch”—a slippery roof over the void—to reach the Upper Ramp, and the base of the Naked Edge proper, in roughly 8 minutes. Kelleghan, who leaves the bridge with the Mini Traxions pre-rigged (see below) and a right-side-heavy rack on her harness because she mostly places off her left arm, then leads the entire route. (The pair decided that because Kelleghan places less gear and is slower on the descent, she should lead the entire route.)

To protect against being pulled off if Droz falls, Kelleghan places a Mini Traxion on the bolted anchor atop the first pitch’s 5.11 finger crack and then a second one atop the 5.10b arête pitch on pitch two. In the final hand crack, Kelleghan places a third Mini Traxion on a hand-sized cam, and then it comes to Droz to catch up to Kelleghan. Droz sprints to the top laden with the rack. When she summits, she unties, while Kelleghan, who has already started the descent, coils the rope while descending. (On their record-setting climb, they summitted in approximately 28 minutes.) The pair then rapid-fire downclimb the East Slabs of the Redgarden Wall (“third class,” but probably 5.0), then Droz catches up to Kelleghan just a few seconds behind her at the bridge. When both climbers tag the bridge, the clock stops.

Historically, speed climbing has been a male-dominated arena, though women have been quickly closing the gap. On the 15-meter IFSC speed wall, Reza Alipour of Iran holds the current male speed record with a time of 5.48 seconds, while Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland holds the current female speed record of 6.84 seconds. On the 3,000-foot Nose of El Capitan, the time gap is wider. Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell hold the record with a time of 1:58:07, while Libby Sauter and Mayan Smith-Gobat hold the women’s record with a time of 4:43.

Droz and Kelleghan’s time on the Naked Edge—the third international speed-climbing arena—edges them closer to the men’s time, with a gap of 13 minutes. However, they’re breaking new ground. Droz noted that Madaleine Sorkin had previously been the only woman to have led the Naked Edge in a single pitch before she (Droz) started climbing the route with Kelleghan. The leap from pitching it out, to climbing it in two pitches, to climbing it in a single pitch proved significant for Droz—perhaps as substantial as setting the speed record in part because she and Kelleghan currently have no other female competition for the record.

Whether female times should be compared with male times is a difficult question, and moves into the controversial arena of first female ascents and how different genders compete with each other. “It’s also a topic that I think women should be in control of,” notes Sauter of men’s and women’s records being compared. “When the majority of women feel that we should be competing against men or [have] our records and FAs compared against them…that’s when I think it should happen.”

“I think it’s important that other women see women are doing that,” says Kelleghan of women setting speed records, pushing themselves on hard climbs, and having fun while doing it.

At the bridge in Eldorado, after the women had already hustled up the route twice in a day, an Eldorado local approached them. Regina regularly runs through the state park, and had watched the pair climb the route from the road. That night, she would write in her journal about the pair’s partnership, dedication, and how she’d been inspired to take Droz and Kelleghan’s efforts and apply them to her own life. As Regina demonstrated, more important than the times, the superlatives, or the details of the climb is the way they inspire.