On February 8–9, 2023, Antar Machado and Cristóbal Señoret (both from Chile) climbed a new route on the northeast face of El Monstruo, which they called La Chilenita (1,200m, 5.11+ A0).

La Chilenita shares a start with the wall’s first route, the obvious corner/chimney on the right side, climbed in 2006 by Boguslaw Kowalski and Jerzy Stefanski (Poland), and named La Gran Raja (“The Great Crack,” 1,300m, 7a). After approximately 250m on La Gran Raja, Machado and Señoret continued angling rightward up a natural weakness. They stopped to bivy on a ledge about one- third of the way up.

The next morning, they continued straight up on more vertical terrain for approximately 400m, which they describe as “alpine climbing,” with sufficient protection but no perfect, Cochamó-esque cracks (5.11+ A0). The angle of the upper northeast shoulder relented to ledge- strewn, fourth-class terrain leading to the summit, which they reached at 2 p.m. They placed a total of six bolts on their ascent. To descend, they hiked down to the north- northeast.

Two other routes, La Presencia de Mi Padre (1,600m, 28 pitches, 5.10+) and Aprendiz del Monstruo (1,300m, VI 5.12), climb the left and center-left sides of the wall on the east face proper (see AAJ 2013 and AAJ 2014 for these route lines).

— Erik Rieger, AAJ, with information from Cristóbal Señoret, Chile