Mount Cristo Rey takes year-long work to stay maintain

Twenty thousand people made their way up mount Cristo Rey Sunday, part of the annual pilgrimage in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Maintaining the mountain takes constant work.

The Mount Cristo Rey Restoration committee works year round, keeping this southern New mexico Monument in shape for pilgrims.
Most of the work is to prepare for the yearly spiritual hike the last Sunday of October.
The final stretch begins Saturday morning around 8 am.

“We set up all the equipment we’re gonna need. We start manning some of the areas, as far as vending areas, bringing up what we’re gonna have for sale, everything that’s going to be needed for the Mass”=,” said Ruben Escandon, with the Mt. Cristo Rey Restoration Committee.

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As pilgrims start marching up the mountain at 5 am Sunday law enforcement agencies come together, from Sunland Police directing traffic to those helping the injured.

“We have EMS personnel from Border Patrol, and we also have a reserve unit that’s here. It’s a medical battalion that always volunteers their services to help us out as well,” Escandon said.

The work gets harder every year

“We’re losing volunteers. A lot of elderly volunteers can’t be up here anymore, so we’re always looking for new blood to come up here and help us out,” Escandon said.

For now these volunteers will keep doing their work, making sure Mount Cristo Rey is safe for those making the trek to its mountaintop Mass every fall.

“There’s different projects that go on throughout the year. The deterioration of the mountain itself. There’s natural erosion that happens, so we come up here building retaining walls, trying to divert water off the trail, rebuilding some of the trails, rebuilding some of the rock walls, so it’s always something, it’s always constant,” Escandon said.

If you’re interested in volunteering you can call Restoration Committee at (915) 252-9840.