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July 30, 2010 – The Nemo Report

Located approximately 45 minutes west of Toronto, Mt Nemo is a massive and mysterious limestone crag with almost 300 routes.

Located approximately 45 minutes west of Toronto, Mt Nemo is a massive and mysterious limestone crag with almost 300 routes. Unfortunately, the length of the crag, the wandering nature of the routes, questionable rock that some climbers love and others hate and the vague guidebook descriptions have contributed to more than one epic.  As a result, activity is mainly centred on only a few dozen of the almost 300 climbs.

Luckily, a group of motivated individuals have taken up the challenge of sorting out these convoluted and conflicting route descriptions. Spearheaded by Justin Dwyer, who is often referred to as Captain Nemo, the group is hoping to climb all the old lines described in the previous guidebooks while providing the updated information on the ontarioclimbing.com forum. They’ve discovered numerous forgotten classics and a few new climbs. Dwyer says, “We are rediscovering fifty years of climbing history and exploring some incredible old lines.” Dwyer continues, “we’re also figuring out what the old and sometimes conflicting route descriptions really mean! What’s also amazing is the potential for new routes. Many climbers believe that Nemo is tapped out – they’re wrong. We’ve already bagged a number of new climbs this season. Nemo is incredible.”

British and European climbers have already discovered the fun of rejuvenating areas that have fallen out of popularity with crag revivals springing up from Mont St Victoire in the south of France to the easy trad on the mountains of North Wales. In the future, we’ll be reporting on how Canadian climbers from Quebec to BC have been rediscovering much worthwhile but forgotten terrain.

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