Beautiful Century

Headed up Beautiful Century on Nanny Goat with the ACC on Saturday. Ken organized the trip and had Sera and myself as the participants for the climb. I was definitely lucky to have been able to join as I was near a computer when the notification came up on email.

We met at Lady of Assumption at 7:20 am. I was actually the last to arrive after grabbing a subway sandwich and getting gas; as i woke up 30 minutes early i was able to cook breakfast and do those 2 additional chores before meeting up which is extremely rare for me. Ken and I carpooled as Sera was staying the night in the Bow River Campground for the weekend. We got to the parking area around 8:30 ish and then started the hike towards the base of the climb. When we reached a large rock drainage we realized we missed the turnoff towards Nanny Goat and then started ascending the drainage where we quickly met up with the path that leads to BC. When we arrived we decided that Sera would second and I would take the third. Ken used a system that he learned from Sarah during the Alpine efficiency course where he clips an extra non-locker to a draw the feed the second rope through. (The main leading rope would go to the lower biner and then the second backup rope that would be connected to the 3rd climber would be clipped to the middle biner. I ended up leading pitch 3 which was a 5.7 climb and then the 6th pitch which was a 5.8 climb. They definitely didn't feel like they were rated that since there was a few roofs especially on the 5.8 climb. Essentially consistent to the other ratings i've experienced so far on that wall. Was great that Ken brought his walkie talkies so that we could talk very easily between the parties on top and on the bottom. We kept with the system that the lead had one and the last climber had one. I'll have to pick up a pair from Costco at some point and make sure they are AA.

The first 2 pitches were quite long and definitely the first 2 bolts on the first pitch were the crux of that pitch. The second pitch which was supposed to be the crux of the climb (5.10a) had an awkward start going to the right and then trusting your feet for a friction-y inverted move to a higher hold.
The 3rd pitch which i lead had 6 bolts which required some friction climbing felt more difficult than 5.7 but i managed through it.
The 4th pitch a 5.9, ended up being quite zigzagging.
Pitch 6 was 5.8 but felt like a 5.10. There were 2 roofs but the crux of the pitch was in the beginning of the climb.
Pitch 7 was relatively straight forward. We decided to put the second rope in the pack and tie off the middle to the leader with 2 independent lines going to each climber. The middle tied off using an overhand on a bite followed through both gear loops on the harness and then through the overhand knot tied with another overhand. This was able to be done because the pitch was meters and we were using a 70 meter rope. Would be quicker this way since there's less rope management.
We ended up doing the walkoff instead of rappelling and was the same descent as Kid Goat down the waterfall. Some scrambling down scree. There is a 15 ft downclimb on some easier 5th class slab; which can be done without a rope in dry conditions.
Got back to the car around 8 pm.

Great climb!