To Heights and unto Depths

Review

## About the Book Fr. John Nepil's *To Heights and unto Depths* chronicles his epic thru-hike across Colorado's 500-mile trail through the Rocky Mountains, undertaken in summer 2022 with three companions and joined by various priests and young people along the way. This memoir serves as both adventure narrative and theological reflection, drawing on the insights of Luigi Giussani, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Hans Urs von Balthasar to forge what Fr. Nepil calls a "first ascent"—a new route where Catholic theology meets alpine adventure. The priest-theologian and mountaineer argues that the Catholic worldview offers the fullest spiritual vision of the backcountry, while the mountains themselves provide a privileged setting for Catholic formation. Written as "a rich theological guidebook for all Catholic lovers of the great outdoors," the book invites readers to rediscover humanity, creation, and God through an Incarnational worldview that comes alive on the trail. ## CCMMP Analysis - **Created**: The book celebrates the inherent goodness of creation through the "breathtaking natural grandeur" of the Rocky Mountains, affirming that the natural world reveals God's beauty and serves as a privileged place for encountering the divine. - **Fallen**: The memoir acknowledges the "arduous" and challenging nature of the 500-mile journey, recognizing that growth and formation often come through difficulty, endurance, and the humbling experience of confronting our limitations in the wilderness. - **Redeemed**: Fr. Nepil demonstrates how the trail becomes a space for pilgrimage and transformation, where an Incarnational worldview allows hikers to "rediscover humanity, creation, and God" through the integration of physical challenge and spiritual reflection. - **Perseverance**: The completion of a 500-mile thru-hike exemplifies the virtue of perseverance, showing how sustained effort toward a challenging goal can become a pathway to deeper spiritual formation. - **Humility**: The mountain environment naturally cultivates humility by placing humans within the "stark majesty" of creation, fostering accurate self-knowledge in relation to God's grandeur.