Moriarty meets Lex Luther

Its been two years and probably a half-dozen trips that Nemesis has been #1 on my ticklist. Finally I had an avalanche forcast, weather, and lack of other parties that allowed me to get on this climb. It is a fantastic climb, but was actually quite a bit less impressive than I had heard. FWIW The Sorcerer or any other big climb is as good as Nemesis... maybe better.



Keith linking the first and second pitch into a 72m pitch.



Chad and Keith topping out pitch 4.

Overview of the Nemesis. We climbed it in two pitches the first was 72m and the second was 69m.

The Iceman Cometh...

I did the last of the big ice routes in the Ghost by climbing Hydrophobia a few weeks ago. It's a pretty awesome and sustained climb. It's steep the whole way and there isn't a ledge in sight. Glad to have done it... but really looking forward to getting back on its anemic friend to the right next year...



Hydrophobia (L) and Cryophobia (R)



Colin reaching the top of the first pitch.



Second pitch, second hanging ice belay.



Colin at the top of pitch 2.

Me climbing the first pitch.

Me on the final pitch.

Quick high steps... trying to keep the boots dry.

A rest day in Evan Thomas Creek... finding suprisingly solid plastic ice in 50 degree temps.

Play Misty for Me

This trip marked the beginning of my post-nursing school, post-NCLEX life. A short tune-up day at Haffer Creek prepared us for a week of spring ice climbing in the Canadian Rockies.



Colin takes flight.

A dangeous avalanche forcast forced Colin and myself to climb in more protected venues. As luck would have it we were the the only party on the Weeping Wall on a beautiful day. We managed to nab the both the lower and upper weeping wall climbing six 60-70m pitches of wi5-6 terrain. An awesome day to open up the spring trip.



The Weeping Wall



Colin somewhere on the Upper Weeping Wall.



Lower Weeping Wall.



About to punch it through 100ft of rotten ice.



Approaching the Upper Weeping Wall.

Second pitch of Upper Weeping Wall.

Dealing with slush and crazy cauliflowers on the final pitch of the Upper Weeping Wall.

Day 2 and the trip is already a success.

The Miracle on Snice

More fun times on I-Rock. We climbed an interesting line that worked itself into the left skylight (about 100 feet left of the Skylight Direct route). We found much more ice on the N Face than in December. There was a half-pitch of Wi4 snice to exit the face... pretty exciting. With all the rime and ice on the face there are many opportunities to steeper and possibly new lines on I-Rock. It's hard to say exactly what has been climbed on I-Rock, for all we know we established a new line. Regardless, I-Rock's N Face is an absolute playground with many 2-4 pitch mixed lines waiting to be climbed.



Me following the second pitch (climbing with two seconds is kinda fun!)

Dan leads first pitch. He had just knocked a microwave size rock loose, it practically rolled to Yocum Ridge!



Dan exiting the lie-back chimney section. It was pretty burly climbing, certainly hard M5.



Dan climbing the snice exit.



Colin starting up the first pitch.



Colin takes off on the second pitch.