My 4th of July weekend began like any other: frantic house cleaning and food stuffs purchasing in prep for our annual 3rd of July party. What? Everyone is always busy on the 4th. Friends and strangers alike descend on bean dip, flag cake and "adult" watermelon, leaving us with enough cheap beer to last for the rest of the year.

This year I was happily joined by my best climbing buddies Katie, Dan, George and Patrick, and our new friend Phil - who all arrived early and made me feel like this was MY party after all.

After a night of corn hole and ladder ball (if you don't know what these games are, I will gladly explain them. I'll just need one of those cheap beers first,) we said goodbye to Katie and Dan and the rest of us set off for Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. Did I mention it was 93 degrees outside? Mmm, superheated trad climbing...

This is a delayed trip report from my spring adventure to Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park, WV.

I hiked with George (@privong), Katie (@k8tlevy) and Dan (@kakistocrat) after camping at the Big Meadows Campground on Saturday evening. The drive to the campground was beautiful. Skyline Drive is a twisty, windy, scenic road of goodness. Nearly every turn has a breathtaking view as you slowly increase your altitude through the park. Coming from the DC area where the temperatures were cresting 80, throwing a jacket into my pack was an after thought. For the rest of the group who forgot warm clothes it turned out to be a very sorely missed thought. That night temperatures plummeted into the 30's, making waking up and leaving the warm tent/sleeping bag incredibly hard.

I climbed a mountain last weekend. No really, I did. Without the aid of motorized vehicles or Sherpa. AND it was in the dead of winter. This isn't something I typically do. I'm a self proclaimed reptile when it comes to temperatures. I just don't do well in extreme conditions, so I was even more astounded to find that I could hike with only two layers - a fleece and a softshell jacket. Amazing.

This whole thing started when Sara Lingafelter (@theclimbergirl) was chosen to go to Nepal with the Hanes Brands Everest team. She took a mountaineering course to prepare and reported about it on her blog. Katie Levey (@adventuregrrl) announced her intention to take a similar class shortly thereafter. While the idea had been planted in the back of my mind by Sara, I hadn't seriously considered taking a class myself. My man mountaineers and ice climbs. Last year I tried ice climbing to see why he likes it so much, so I figured this year I should try mountaineering, or "walking slowly uphill while not feeling well."