This past weekend we reached the pinnacle of the DC heatwave with temps soaring to 105 degrees in the city and planes literally melting into the tarmac at the airport… With the oppressively hot weather in the forecast, there was only one thing to do—escape to the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains in search of at least slightly cooler temps. This …
After a few years of climbing here in DC, I finally made it out to climb at Carderock on the Fourth of July. It’s funny because it is pretty much the closest outdoor climbing crag to DC, yet I had never been! Our local climbing club, the Potomac Mountain Club (PATC-MS) holds weekly climbs at Carderock, though with my work …
This past weekend was the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club – Mountaineering Section’s annual Fourth of July get together at Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. About 15 or so folks from the DC Metro Area braved an extremely violent wind and thunderstorm and a weekend of appallingly hot and oppressively humid weather to get together for climbing at Seneca Rocks, WV. It …
5/5 Stars Simply put, the Feathered Friends Jackorack is an awesome little windshirt and I recommend it to pretty much everyone. I bought mine way back in May 2011 and it has been on every single trip since that time—from regular backpacking trips in the Mid-Atlantic, to Rainier and Baker, to ice climbing in New Hampshire, to cragging at Seneca …
I’m drawing on my days in college as a Middle Eastern Studies major—one of the Five Pillars of Islam is that every Muslim with the means and ability to do so has the religious duty to perform Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once their lifetime. Likewise, as a climber and lover of the outdoors it is incumbent upon …
Saturday morning, three of us from DC UL Backpacking headed out to Shenandoah National Park for waterfalls, some strenuous climbs, and absolutely stunning vistas over the course of 19+ miles on this Old Rag backpacking trip. The highlight of the trip was a bright and early alpine start for an Old Rag sunrise hike to watch the sun come up …
I joined a small group of twelve or so DC area climbers who were taking advantage of the long Memorial Day Weekend to make the more than five-hour drive to the popular New River Gorge in southeastern West Virginia. Some of the group was old faces but most were new to me on this New River Gorge Memorial Day trip. …
It’s been almost three years since my first backpacking trip out here on the East Coast. I had been living in DC for almost two years with not much exploration of nature beyond the Beltway. Being from the Northwest I had initially kind of (unfairly) dismissed the hiking and backpacking opportunities available here in the Mid-Atlantic. Well, after so much …