After a good night of sleep following our Saturday trip to Bushwhack (which I'll also post about soon) we got up early yesterday and drove down to Old Rag Mountain in Virginia, a place I'd been wanting to visit for years. Originally planning to walk all the way up and maybe play on some of the boulders up top, we changed our plan somewhat when a friend's ankle began to hurt part way up the trail, the result of a massive fall that she took a few years back. Not that I was overly disappointed about the change of plan... I'm sure the summit is awesome, and I have every intention of going back, but at that point the river and boulders at the base of the mountain were the prettiest things I'd seen all day. As it was, my friends had practically needed to drag me away from them to get me started up the trail!
Before heading back down, Emily and I walked a bit further up the trail, and saw local father and son Barry and Brendan Condron coming up the trail with crashpads in tow. They showed us around a bit, and we hung out while they worked on a great problem called The Mindala. Going at around V8, it worked up crimps and slopers on an overhanging arete, and I could easily see why it's considered one of the best problems in Virginia. I gave it a couple tries myself before deciding that warming up would have been a better idea.
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| Brendan Condron working The Mindala |
