The temperatures were warming up a bit for Christmas so we decided to give Nemesis a go. Since we were both climbing ice pretty much "off the couch" (I had flown in from San Francisco a couple of days before, and Jason had only 1 day of ice in November), we thought we'd go to Grotto Canyon to get a feel for the ice and see how brittle it is. We hung out on Hers for a bit getting the blood pumping in our hands, ran up Grotto Falls quickly and then retreated to my house for a delicious Christmas dinner. We felt pretty good.

So we were off to Nemesis the next day. Estimated highs during the day were -20 C - I had two down jackets at times and was pretty cold. The ice had cement-like qualities making the climbing much more challenging than it needs to be - sometimes 10 swings needed to get a placement. Good fun! That said, the ice was quite featured in the first half of the climb, making for fun and technical climbing that was much more like rock climbing in nature. We completed it in 4 pitches (Jason started, and we swapped leads).

By the time we rappelled it was dark, we had a quick drink & snack and motored our way out of there. We were at the car 1 hour later, much better than the 2.5 hours it took us to approach the climb and break trail. We had brought skis in the truck, but the trail seemed pretty good so we walked - skis may have been a bit faster in hindsight.

I knew I was tired since I was getting pumped gripping my ski poles on the hike out - trying to get out of the truck in Canmore resulted in some painful calf cramps too. Thankfully we ate at a buffet and certainly got our money's worth with 2-3 plates each.

Now the question is, what's in for next year? Ha ha! Merry Christmas!!!

	Jason on Hers in Grotto Canyon		Jason lighting up a cigar

		me and Jason climbed Grotto Canyon side by side before leaving	His & Hers

	Stanley Headwall: a lot of hard climbs on here	The top of Nemesis is barely visible on the left, with Suffer Machine the piece of ice on the right	Jason pointing at Nemesis

	Nemesis is the line on the left, Suffer Machine on the right	Our Nemesis for the day is staring at us!!!	Suffer Machine (rarely formed to ground, but has mixed start)

	Close up of the climbs on the headwall, photo by Jason

	Nemesis with Jason postholing on the foreground	Full view of Nemesis - almost there!

		Jason starting up the first pitch	Jason on top of the first pitch

	Bundled up and warm	Jason looking up the 2nd pitch from the belay: goes to the cave top left	Jason looking down the 1st pitch

		Me on the first pitch

	Me leading the 2nd pitch to the cave	Jason coming up the 2nd pitch	Beautiful position...

	Looking up at the 3rd (traversing) pitch	5-bolt belay in the cave :)	Jason starting the 3rd pitch

	A little tricky to get established on the ice, but fun	me coming up the 3rd (traverse) pitch	Wow, check out that smile!

	Me starting the 4th pitch of Nemesis

	Beautiful view	Me looking down from the very top of Nemesis after finishing the 4th pitch!	Jason at the base of the climb after we rappelled: WHOHOO

	Back at the truck, an hour later: check out the frozen perspiration on the gaitors!	Jason back at the truck	My attempt at looking cool