Monzino/Homenaje Route on Torre Norte ~ Torres Del Paine

Trip Reports

Jan 2

Written By

I arrived in Puerto Natales on December 23rd, 2024. It was my first time on this side of the Andes, and even though I had planned it for months, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

I came here to join the Slovenian expedition to Patagonia. We met in Bariloche about a week prior, training together in Frey for a couple days before going down South.

By the time the Slovenian group arrived on Christmas Day, I luckily recovered from a terrible sickness that kept me locked in the bathroom for over a day. Thankfully, we avoided our plan A — leaving for the park the same day as they arrived. There was a lot to figure out! Too many things, on top of managing 9 people, it’s a logistical nightmare. Our rooms looked like chaos. We laid down all of our food and gear, making a plan to stay in the mountains for 7 days. We didn’t know how long it would take us to find a window and summit. We had to give ourselves the best chances and maximize the odds. The weather looked good until January 1st, so that’s what we planned for!

For a group of highly experienced expedition climbers, everyone was very relaxed and fully trusted that things will fall into place. Since nobody was making important decisions and nobody spoke Spanish and nobody climbed in Paine before, I took on the role of making those decisions. I bought most of our food, laid it out and divided it into sections, by meals and then split into 9 equally-ish piles by weight. I gave each person their food portion, Matjaz Dusic made our white gas burners work and went to buy propane canisters for backup. Then it was the whole permit logistic nightmare. For climbing in the park here in Paine you have to get some heavy paperwork done. They ask you to apply for permits online, country declaration, and pay the park permits. You need to get all of that printed 3 times + the copies of your passports and medical & rescue insurance. It doesn’t sound that bad for one person, but it’s a lot for nine people. Trying to find someone who would print that many copies of paper on December 25th in a small town was almost impossible. At the end our hotel receptionist was sneaking me 10 copies at the time for three hours straight, whenever her boss wasn’t looking. Even though I offered to pay, nobody wanted to help, the funniest thing ever.

By eleven o'clock at night, our heavy bags were almost ready, and we were in beds. I couldn’t sleep, thinking about what we were about to do. Is it true what my dad says—that I’m not ready? Or should I listen more to my mom—just go and try, it will be a great experience.

The sleepless night was interrupted by terrible snoring from my bunkmates, and at 6 am, my alarm was set. Quick shower, quick breakfast and I was on the 7 am bus to the park. The thing about all the paperwork is that you then (after making copies of everything) need to get it approved in the park’s administration office, which is on the complete opposite side of the park, from where our trailhead lies. I planned to go there alone, so we don’t need to move all the sheep to the end of the road and back just for some papers. Meanwhile, they would do some last-minute shopping etc. and we would meet in the park, at the trailhead.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at the park administration office they told me something that sounded like my worst nightmare. I couldn’t get the permits approved until all nine of them were present. I informed all the others, + they had to fill out another paper that we didn’t have… and then the waiting began. I had to wait for five hours until they boarded the bus and arrived at the administration office. About forty minutes before arriving, they finally allowed me to speak with the boss and after a five minute conversation, he stamped my papers like it’s no big deal. I couldn’t believe it.

When the bus arrived, all the Slovenians wanted to get off. I rushed over and told them to stay put. I put on my backpack and explained the situation: There was no need. We had what we needed, and we needed to go back to where we came from. Following the circuit that the bus made, we had to first go all the way to Lago Grey, have lunch, and then return to Laguna Amarga.

From there we had to get another shuttle, that would take us to the trailhead. Here is where things got worse! Turned out I had forgotten the papers on the main bus that was now (8 pm at this point), already back to Puerto Natales. The crew reacted like you would expect them to. They started chanting “we are fucked, we are fucked, OHHHH ole ole ole ole ole we are so fucked!” Like Slovenia just lost an important soccer game. We had no option but to continue. I knew it was fine, somewhere in the system my name was on a stamped and signed piece of paper under the title “The Chief Of The Expedition”: Alenka Mali

But I also had no idea what to expect…. Because it was almost 10pm when we started hiking, we didn’t make it all the way to base camp the first day like we had planned. We put up an emergency “temporary bivouac” in campo Chileno for the night and moved on the next morning. Having no problem passing the rangers checkpoint — they just radioed the administration office and confirmed our permits. We were in the base camp in only a few hours and already looking up, making a plan. “Now”, I thought, “things are getting real!”

this might’ve been my first big expedition, but I wasn’t naive to think everything would go super smooth.

After eating a good lunch and setting up camp, climbing teams started to form in traditional expedition style. A level of climbing order has been established a week prior whilst climbing in Frey, as we tested ourselves and each other on variety of routes. Given the difficulty of routes we wanted to climb and the mix of mutual and individual interests and goals, all 9 of us formed 4 climbing teams. Liza and I decided to climb the Monzino route with Ales, and Janez Marolt and Samo Supin, Patagonian veterans. Matjaž Dusic, Benjamin Radoslovnik, Tilen Marolt and Blaz Slatinsek decided to go via Homenaje/Monzino variation on Torre Norte. I wasn’t expecting everyone to climb the same summit but it was very fun to align on the objective, each team taking a different way up.

The approach from the Japanese base camp to the bottom of Torre Norte was long.

Some decided to bivouac under the wall and some decided to carry up the heavy gear that same day, but spend the night in the base camp for a better sleep and easier approach.

I stayed in the base camp with Liza and Ales, Janez, and Samo. At 2.45 am our alarm went off, and I was up like nothing. It has never been easier to leave my sleeping bag. I boiled water for mate, my medicine. And made some oatmeal for the team. It will be a long day, I tried eating as many calories as I could in that moment, so I didn’t have to carry that much food with me. Starting in the dark, we followed the trail west from Campo Japonese, as got steep pretty quickly. A few hours later we were under the magnificent walls of nearby peaks and my mind was dreaming! How cool it would be to come back someday and climb and jump those walls? I was falling in love with the place, day by day. On December 28th, was the best possible weather day. We could’ve not have planned anything better than that! Some locals we saw on the way told us the same thing, today was day D.

Crossing sections of hard packed snow, we got to about 1200 m elevation and that is when we hit the bottom of the couloir that would take us to the Col Bich, the col between Torre Norte and Torre Central. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t stop smiling. Thinking of my mom and dad, and what they have experienced in Patagonia. Thinking of my mom, trying the first ascend here with Nastja Davidova almost 12 years ago on the Bonnington route of Central Tower. How lucky am I? This is happening. It was such a process to get here, but here I am and every struggle along the way was worth it. More than worth it!

There wasn’t much snow in the couloir, about 2 hours later, we were on the shoulder to the left side of it. That was when we ropped up and began our climbing with about 5-6 pitches of mixed climbing of cold granite and ice. Knowing well, that it will be hours before the sun hits these walls, and alternating between climbing with gloves and no gloves, depending on the difficulty of each pitch. Liza and I were smiling hard, even though we were freezing. The beautiful morning was turning into a gorgeous day, we couldn’t believe where we were! This was a first big Patagonian wall experience for both of us, and we mutually respected each other’s skills and abilities as well as gave things the time and respect they neeeded, moving fast but without rush. When we got to the col, our frozen cheeks and hands warmed up in the morning sun and a beautiful vista of Lago Torres opened up to us. I thought about all the tourists hiking up to the lookout, having absolutely no idea there are people on these towers.

The next few pitches were back in the shade and I had to gather a lot of strength to forget about painfully frozen hands and just climb! Go up, pull the rope, belay, switch. The route isn’t long but climbing in 3 took some time. The last few pitches before the summit push were easy 5.7 scrambling and gave us a chance to relax a little and move faster. The short vertical 5.9 leading up to the summit was enjoyable and satisfying. Now, climbing in full sun - even though the wind started to pick up. At no point I was too warm. Either cold, or warm enough to function. There wasn’t much room to relax. A quick picture, some snacks, (I got very scared when I noticed I pretty much ran out of food on the summit). That is never good. Even though I wasn’t the most experienced one on the team, I knew well enough to know summit is only a half way up. And most accidents, or mistakes happen on the descend. That is the part where things are most likely to go wrong.

My biggest key to staying dry in the mountains is wearing merino underlayers!! BRANWYN Merino Underwear is my number #1 choice!!

Around 5pm on December 28th 2024, all 4 teams from the Slovenian expedition reached the summit of Torre Norte.

TOPO for Monzino Route on Torre Norte

It was a lot of fun to share the joy and summiting together after that much effort being put into the expedition. On the way down, we shared all the rappel anchors and even some ropes, making it slower than anticipated. Of course, in Patagonia, your rope will get stuck. The combination of granite and windy gusts it’s bound to happen. That was the good part of 4 parties rappelling close to each other, we were able to help each other with stuck ropes. Our team summited first, so we were also the first in line for all the rappels. I was getting tired. That was the point where we were coming up to 20 hours of movement and it was tough to have a will to keep going with the same smile.

Well, the smile was there, but my battery was running low. Severely dehydrated and sunburnt from the sun and wind, I was out of water and out of food. Looking at the sun go behind Fortaleza, as we were still 10 rappels away from the solid ground. The rope was getting stuck, so we had to do some route finding to find the anchors. Some rappels required a double rope, while others were fine with a 60m rope. Step by step, we were approaching the ground. On the last 2 rappels, we crossed path with 2 local Chilean guys, who were coming down the Bonnington route. The rope was stuck, so I helped them out. Their names were Carlos and Raul, strong and motivated climbers who attempted the Bonnington route that same day, but had to turn around unfortunately, on the 10th pitch, due to ice in the cracks.

By the time we all got down safe, it was close to midnight, and we were wrapped in complete darkness, only the stars showing us the way. I was without poles hiking down, and it slowed me down significantly. The backpack was heavy (a couple of rocks I picked up from the summit didn’t help!) and I was exhausted. Pushing for 24 hours on my feet, I just wanted to lay down and stop. The classic feeling of a never-ending descent was very much present on this day as well. I kept looking at my watch and seeing the elevation slowly drop, bit by bit. Our base camp wasn’t as high as normal base camps would be. Lying at only 634m, Campo Japones is relatively low. But when you think about it, Puerto Natales is at 0m, being next to the ocean. Just like Squamish. When we finally made it, under the stars and sat down and couldn’t believe it. The luck, the stars, the weather. Everything aligned so perfectly. I felt an immense sense of gratitude and relief that overwhelmed my whole body. I did it! And it’s all good.

We cooked some soup with Blaz and Tilen, laughing and sharing stories about our day. Those guys are strong and motivated yet very modest and timid. It was their first time in Patagonia, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I crashed hard after that and slept until noon the next day (or the same day).

Shop my favourite gloves: Baist Gloves – Code: “ALENKABaist“

Reflecting back on it now, I still can’t believe it. We showed up, came to camp, and summited the very next day. Something clicked inside of me that day, I knew deep down that nothing would ever be the same. I feel at home in Patagonia, and I feel at home in the mountains. I made a promise to myself that day, that I will come back and climb the Bonnington next year. Every climber that comes to climb in Patagonia experiences the same thing, I’m sure. A certain addiction to the place, dreaming of the next granite tower they want to climb, before they even leave their current trip.

Patagonia is my home.

This is where my heart is.