Spanning nearly 500 miles across the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Trail is an epic, arduous route through some of America’s most breathtaking natural grandeur. In the summer of 2022, Fr. John Nepil, priest-theologian and mountaineer, set out to traverse the entire trail as a “thru-hike” with a trio of companions, accompanied along the way by an eclectic rotating cast of priests and young people. This memoir, which is simultaneously a theological reflection on life, Christianity, and the mountains themselves, is the fruit of that pilgrimage.

Drawing on great thinkers of the past century, including Luigi Giussani, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, Fr. Nepil offers a “first ascent”: a new route where Catholic theology meets alpine adventure. In his telling, the Catholic worldview offers the fullest spiritual vision of the backcountry, and the backcountry, in turn, reveals itself as a privileged setting for Catholic formation. Seen from the trail, the Catholic faith comes alive as an Incarnational worldview where we rediscover humanity, creation, and God.

This is a rich theological guidebook for all Catholic lovers of the great outdoors—particularly the mountains—and for all who see and seek God in the stark majesty of the natural world.

“This is an immersion in the ‘Book of Nature’, along with the books of Scripture, to encounter the living God. Fr. John shows us the importance of removing ourselves from the culture of noise and going to the silence and beauty of nature, just as Jesus did. This story leads us to the foundational Christian mystery of the Incarnation where God, creation, and mankind come to be known together. It’s what makes the book remarkable, and why you need to read it.”
+ Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop Emeritus, Philadelphia 

"The spiritual life has often been compared to a rugged but rewarding pilgrimage. This book is just such a journey: a pilgrimage of the heart combining vivid storytelling, philosophy, history, nature writing, spiritual reflections, and more in a package that is at once rich and unique. I believe men will especially find this book appealing due to its adventurous spirit and theological depth." 
— Sam Guzman, Author, The Catholic Gentleman 

“Summiting the beautiful mountains of the Colorado Rockies has been one of my favorite pastimes—not only for the breathtaking views, but also for how they can take us to the heights spiritually. In the age of the iPhone, as modern man drifts further and further from creation, he also drifts away from the Creator and his true self. Fr. Nepil’s expedition through the Rockies is a blast of brisk air, reawakening the Christian soul in a way that even the best Catholic app cannot. This action-packed work of adventurous contemplation is at once funny, exciting, and theologically rich. By leading you out into the wilderness, it will bring you back to your deepest roots.”
— Edward Sri, Theologian and Author, The Art of Living 

“Fr. John Nepil has written of deep things with a profound simplicity that constantly beckons the reader forward with the provocation of the Gospel.  Told through the lens of his hiking in the wilderness of Colorado, the beauty and the challenge of the mountains mirror those same qualities in our journey toward union with Christ.  It is a task that requires a stalwart soul filled with courage, but one that is also filled with humility.  Fr. Nepil’s weaving together of theology and the lived experience of hiking reminds us all of our pilgrim status.  And in the words of Dostoevsky’s starets Zosima, whom Nepil cites, ‘A loving humility is a terrible power.’ I could not put this book down.  It is both humble and powerful.”
— Larry Chapp, Retired Professor of Theology; Author, Confessions of a Catholic Worker

"In joining his three companions for a “thru-hike” across the 486 miles and eight mountain ranges of the Colorado Trail, Fr. John Nepil, joins a noble literary tradition of transforming a real human deed into a unique occasion for spiritual meditation.  The book that has resulted from this adventure is an “Ascent of Mont Ventoux” written specifically for our times.  Constantly drawing on the great insights of wise writers from the past century, Fr. Nepil brings apparent opposites together—the heights and the depths, the spirit and matter, the sublime and the ordinary, the theological and the all-too-human—into a memorable illumination of our universal human experience."
— D.C. Schindler, Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology, The John Paul II Institute at The Catholic University of America

"There are various ways to approach the mountains. The industrialist simply lays them waste. The environmentalist often offers them worship. The tourist just uses them as a backdrop. The Christian, by contrast, tries to engage them in conversation and to learn to live among their terrible heights. Fr. Nepil has succeeded in introducing us into his conversation with the mountains and their God. The effect is equally sobering and exhilarating. I am grateful to him."
— Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. - Dominican House of Studies