On ourSouthern Colorado road tripthis retiring summer , my guy and I had scan about a spiritually root canon just outside the Rockies called Penitente Canyon .
The canyon had once attend to as a stead of worship for Los Hermanos Penitente , a Catholic brotherhood of Spanish descent . The men come in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico in the early nineteenth century after Mexico gained independency .
But in the New World , their Old World opinion were shun by the Catholic Church , who try out to abolish their ritual of repentance that included tanning and the carrying of heavy crosses to atone for their sins . The Penitente brotherhood was forced to lived in seclusion in the foothills of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains , where they were able-bodied to use their organized religion complimentary of extraneous influences .
Though the brotherhood has gone underground in the last hundred , a secret society of sort , their name lives on in the canyon . Today , Penitente Canyon is known as one of Colorado ’s PM sport climbing name and address .
Lying on the western sharpness of the San Luis Valley , one can see how a religious order of worshiper had chosen Penitente Canyon as a refuge . It sits seemingly in the heart of nowhere , surround by immense open land with the San Juans and Sangre de Cristos looming in the distance . All that can be heard on a summer good afternoon is the wind in the aviation … maybe a tumbleweed rolling across the road .
The nearest townsfolk is a few miles away and can hardly be called a Ithiel Town — more like a endocarp check at the outre La Garita Cash Store .
The canon is well build up for mounting , with several trail leading to red and orange - tinted cliffs heap like giant block .
The canyon is part of the La Garita Caldera and climb from the big known volcanic volcanic eruption in Earth ’s account , around 27 million years ago during the Oligocene Epoch . The massive magma burst entrust behind a molded ash tree and mineral deposit called Fish Canyon Tuff , making the rock grippy and ideal for climbing .
The climbing path are n’t the long , with the tall line reaching 80 feet and the mediocre being 50 feet . But if you like single - pitch climb , you ’ll find one C of sporty , bolted routes in the medium to forward-looking level , and barely anyone else around . thoroughgoing privateness . Just you and … the rattlesnakes .
Yes . rattler ! manifestly there is a rattlesnake den at the mouth of the canyon . I skipped past one on my way to a climbing wall , only to get word a warning rattle beside my feet , and see a baby rattler retreat into a bush . And where there ’s baby rattler … there ’s mama rattler . gravid , angry , protective momma rattler .
As you take the air through the canyon , you ’ll descend across the Virgin Wall , named for a mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe painted on the grimace .
Legend has it that the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously seem on the cloak of an indigenous peasant near Mexico City in 1531 . Her simulacrum is highly revered by Mexican Catholics , and sometime between the forties and 1980s , three man from the Penitente Church decided to honor her in the canon with a hand painted mural .
It is said that the three hands marry their lariats together and attached them to an old tire , which they glower over the canyon wall to support the painter . A alikeness of the Virgin was painted along with an lettering of “ Consuelo y Espiritu ” ( Comfort and Courage ) . Painted below the mural are the very fainthearted names of the three men — Victor , Abel and Victor .
presently after , a drunkard with a handgun adjudicate to utilise the wall painting as target practice and completely buck up the grimace of the Virgin , forget pockmark around the wall painting . Two social climber eventually rappel down the wall and plastered the bullet hole , but were unable to bushel her face .
The wall painting is easy weathering , but the Virgin of Guadalupe remain a symbol of the canon ’s spiritual roots and looks over all those who mount there .
About the only drawback of visiting Penitente Canyon is that with only the two of us , there were hardly any chance for impression because we were too busy climbing . But I ’ll leave you with this parting shot of my guy cable Will , pump after contribute Captain America !
