North Tower Of Paine, East Face. Marko Prezelj and Andrej Stremfelj climbed a new 750-meter route on the east face of North Tower of Paine. They named it Born Under A Wandering Star (VI 5.10a A4 -). They arrived at basecamp on January 18. The first pitches were fixed on January 21. Over the next nine days they fixed 12 pitches, hauling gear to the high point before bad weather forced them back to basecamp. On February 4, they jümared to their high point and the next day fixed one more pitch. On the morning of February 6 the weather continued to be bad, but they started up their lines regardless. The weather improved and they reached the northern summit at 5:30 p.m. They descended to the portaledges at the 11th belay the same day. They were forced to wait one more day at the portaledges, then, on February 8, they descended to basecamp and cleaned the route. They reported sharp and very friable rock. Their route was a completion of a previous Slovenian attempt by Edo Kozorog, Matjac Ravhekar and Ivan Rejc in 1987/88. Though the main difficulties had been climbed in the earlier attempt, bad weather had prevented completion of the route. The earlier Slovenian team had left only belays and a few bolts. Prezelj and Stremfelj placed no additional bolts.

Franci Savenc, Planiska Zveza Slovenije