Penitente Canyon

For the long weekend, we packed the Subie and headed south for some warm sun in Penitente Canyon. I’d never been to the San Luis Valley, and it was nice to fill in one of the last blank spots on my map of Colorado. We drove down through Buena Vista as a beautiful evening unfolded before us, clouds lifting off snowy peaks in sublime light. I always love exploring new places and we were excited for what the weekend would bring. The weather forecast looked decent, and it turned out to be a beautiful three days.

I hadn’t been to an “old school” sport area in a while, and I forgot how funky the old bolting style can be. Thankfully we had a stick clip, though sometimes it was just barely long enough to reach those high first bolts. We climbed many of the moderates in the canyon, and really enjoyed everything we tried. The first day we hit some techy slabs in Penitente, Sunday we explored Witches Canyon, which offered steeper, more featured stone, and Monday was back to Penitente for more techy face climbing.

The area is incredibly beautiful, and the routes were perfect for getting back into the climbing mindset after a long winter spent skiing peaks. I’m not much good at that style of climbing, but Tracy loves it, and it was a lot of fun watching her float routes that I struggled on. It was nice to be on the road again and we’re headed to Maple this coming weekend for more fun in the sun (or maybe the shade, since things are warming up quick!)