by: Dustin Heron Urban

One and a half hours in the car puts you at the mouth of Penitente Canyon, the most well known and heavily climbed among a maze of canyons formed from eroded volcanic ash deposits. The rock quality is excellent and conducive to extremely aesthetic lines. Holds are often formed from huecos—spherical pockets in the rock face—and the high-friction rock makes for both grippy holds and sore fingertips.

A favorite classic of ours is the picturesque Los Hermanos de la Weenie Way (5.11c), a line which begins with a fun traverse below a mural of the Virgin Mary. Just right of that line is a personal favorite, Not My Cross to Bear (5.11a), an open book dihedral with lots of stemming moves.

On our most recent trip to Penitente, my climbing buddies Jed Selby, Andre Spino-Smith and I were feeling particularly ambitious. We had climbed many of the 5.10s and 5.11s in the canyon and were eager to check out new lines in the 5.12s. We arrived Friday night in time to boulder (no ropes, just pads) the start of some of the canyon’s classic harder lines. We scrapped our way up the first moves of a couple 5.13s, feeling quite pleased with ourselves, and worked the start of a particularly intriguing 5.12c called Art of Suffering. We were oblivious at the time to just how appropriate that name is.

The crux on Art of Suffering comes in the first few moves through a 45-degree overhang. First you lay all your weight into a three-finger, right-hand pocket before getting dynamic to a two-finger pocket with your left hand. From there you have almost all your weight on the middle and index fingers of the left hand as you throw with your right hand for a good hold and pull yourself over the lip. Sounds easy, right? Not for our little crew.

On Friday evening we figured out how to make the move to the two-finger pocket, an accomplishment we were pleased with. After a nice fire and some Colorado microbrews on Friday night, we were ready to pull out the ropes and get after it Saturday. We “warmed up” on a couple 5.11s before proceeding to get our butts kicked on a 5.12a. Logically it was on to the 5.12c from there. Shockingly, we weren’t feeling totally fresh at this point, and the three of us ended up working the start of Art of Suffering for a good while, rotating turns. Jed came tantalizingly close to sending the crux but made the fatal error of shouting “take” to Andre, his belayer, at one point when he felt close to falling. Consequently Andre took in slack and literally pulled Jed off the rock as he was on the verge of making it through the crux.

Andre tied in for another try while Jed kicked himself for yelling “take” at exactly the wrong time. It was the three-finger pocket that did Andre in. He’s still taking a break from hard climbing while his hand heals. Next I gave it my last shot, calling it quits after missing the move to the two-finger pocket a couple times and feeling some minor pain in my tendons. Finally it was Jed who was ready to give it another shot, intent on getting the move which he had come so tantalizing close to sending. On his first attempt he latched onto the two-finger pocket just as his feet slipped out, putting all of his weight on the middle and index fingers of his left hand. He fell, and after a short rest, tried again. This time when he hit the two-finger pocket, he fell and knew something was wrong. A sharp pain had shot down his arm—never a good sign for a climber. It was at this point that we retreated to our campsite with our tails between our legs, fully acquainted with the true meaning of the route’s name.

But enough of the carnage stories. There is a wealth of great climbing in Penitente and the surrounding canyons, and we are truly fortunate to live so close to such a gem.

As for The Monitor, it is a quite different style of climbing. That’s the beauty of being a climber in BV—you can choose from a variety of rock types depending on your mood. Just 45 minutes from South Main, the Monitor is a formation of alpine granite perhaps 400 feet in height. It is covered in great lines, many of which wander upwards for three or four pitches. I have heard The Monitor called some of the best multi-pitch sport climbing (bolted lines) in Colorado. There are also some excellent traditional lines (which involve using cams and other temporary gear to catch any falls) on the monitor, including the moderate Trooper Traverse (5.8).

Long story short, BV is a fantastic base camp for a climber. The local granite is great for after-work burns, and you have alpine granite on Independence Pass, the volcanic rock of Penitente, and the endless limestone routes at Shelf Road all within striking distance. Plus there are lots of great multi-pitch routes in Eleven Mile Canyon, just an hour and a half away. If you’re a climber, be sure to check out some of these gems when you’re in the area. You can buy guidebooks for all of these climbing areas at Buena Vista’s The Trailhead.


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