Opening a new route was not in our plans when Ibon Mendia and I left Puerto Natales in Chilean Patagonia and walked in for a six-day stay beneath the famed Torres del Paine. The first four days brought horrible weather. We barely managed to climb a variant of La Via dell’Agordino on Peineta and to summit Torre Norte del Paine by the Monzino.

On our fifth day, December 27, 2024, the weather began to clear, but it was still cold and windy, and we did not leave the tent until 11 a.m. The window was too small for our initial objective, so we shifted gears and started up unclimbed terrain 50m to the right of Taller del Sol on the west face of Torre Norte del Paine.

Our new route, Erresistentziara Kondenatuak (420m, 10 pitches, 7a), takes a direct line up the face, following obvious crack systems up very good rock. After reaching the ridge, we descended Monzino, forgoing the summit of Torre Norte, which we had reached just a few days prior. We would recommend future parties bring three sets of cams to number 2 and two number 3s.  

The next day we were finally graced with sunny, warm weather and climbed Torre Central via the Bonington Route.

—Tasio Martin Elorrieta, Basque Country