How a Cave-Jumping Daredevil Transformed Puerto Rico’s Climbing Scene

The year is 1975. Fifteen cows, three goats, two geese and a pig were found mutilated in the small town of Moca, Puerto Rico. The carcasses all had one thing in common: two small incisions in their hides, like vampire teeth.

The people of Moca speculated that a satanic cult was practicing some blood ritual, but over the next several weeks, more than 150 farm animals were killed in a similar fashion. The legend of “El Vampiro de Moca” was born. Some locals claimed to see a strange beast; a reptilian, bear-sized creature with a spiny ridge going from its neck down to its tail. A local journalist for The San Juan Star, Gino Boscarino, was tasked with joining a group of caving experts to go down into the caverns surrounding Moca to look for answers.

Gino saw this as an opportunity to bond with his 13-year-old son, Rossano. He showed up to Rossano’s school, asked his teachers to excuse him, and brought him on this caving adventure. Rossano and his father didn’t find the Vampire of Moca in 1975. In fact, this monster would go on to become a legend in Puerto Rico, later renamed the “Chupacabra” and depicted repeatedly in popular culture. But that day, in the caves with his father, another legend was born: Rossano Boscarino. Over the next 50 years, he became the leading caving and rock climbing expert, first ascensionist, route developer, and leader of adventure tourism on the island of Puerto Rico.

From caving to climbing

By the age of 21, Boscarino was an amateur caver, and he was invited to explore a potential cave connection in the Rio Camouy system, one of the largest on the island, with six main entrances. Boscarino’s team was trying to link two separate caverns, so they sent two groups to different entrances. The caves were separated by a passageway near the ceiling.

Their initial plan was to shoot an arrow through the narrow connection to pull a rope through. After some failed attempts, they realized the tunnel was too small, the cave had too many obstructions, and the arrow wouldn’t work. When others became frustrated, Boscarino saw an opportunity.  He looked at the cave wall and thought, “That doesn’t look so bad to climb.” He climbed up and spotted the connection, but he was 60 feet off the ground without any protection, and the situation was precarious.

Local cavers looked on nervously. Boscarino couldn’t span the gap between the rock he climbed and the passageway to the next chamber. In a moment of pure determination, and a literal leap of faith, Boscarino jumped across into the connection point and landed in a small rimstone pool.

From here, he could hear the other team. He made contact with them via a rope, and everyone was overjoyed.

That single jump transformed Boscarino from a curious young caver to a respected member of their tight-knit community. The area where he leapt became known as “Rossano’s Jump,” a testament to his fearlessness.

Meeting the legend

Rossano Boscarino is a chatterbox. When I found him in the back of his climbing store in San Juan, Aventuras Tierro Adentro, he had long, wavy hair and was surrounded by shelves of caving and climbing books dating back decades. He instantly started telling me stories of how he was one of the first to explore many of the cave systems in Puerto Rico, and how that led him to get into rock climbing. He talked about simul climbing The Nose (5.9 C2; 3,000ft) on El Cap, blitzing the Regular Northwest Face (5.9 C1; 2,200ft) of Half Dome in 20 hours with Hans Florine, and completing daring alpine ascents in Switzerland. He emanated a certain machismo that was more charming than not, and he boldly claimed he was “the first person to bring sport climbing to Puerto Rico.”

But this confident climber didn’t even begin the sport until the age of 25. In 1987, he went to South Dakota to compete in professional rope ascent competitions—yes, those exist—and followed up his world-record performance with a trip to Devil’s Tower. Another caving competitor had invited him to multi-pitch climb there, and Boscarino caught the bug for rock climbing.

He got back to Puerto Rico, and realized he was living on a blank canvas of beautiful limestone. The problem was, there was no climbing scene.

Once again, Boscarino saw an opportunity.

“No one had any climbing gear. I got my hands on an old Mountain Tools catalogue and ordered the island’s first shipment of shoes, bolts, cams, and aid gear. I used to make my own pitons out of rebar to explore the caves underground.”

He knew that in order to build out climbing infrastructure in Puerto Rico, he would need money, and help. In the late 80’s, there were very few people climbing on the island. He slowly converted his friends and eventually, his partner, Edda. Her help was instrumental in developing routes on the Island.

To sustain his development of caving and climbing, Boscarino started a cave tour guide service in San Juan, Aventuras Tierra Adentro. His business grew quickly, as it was the only public facing cave tour business on the island—not a bad gig, when you’re the guy who first explored the passageways.

It wasn’t long before he had some extra time and money to spend on route development. He knew that if he started establishing climbs, the island would become a rock climber’s paradise. He was also keenly aware that he could expand his business from cave tours and into outdoor rock climbing.

First ascents in Puerto Rico

In 1992, Boscarino was driving through Ciales, a beautiful town scattered with limestone cliffs in the hills of north central Puerto Rico. Most of the cliffs are on private property, but at the time, the government had just cut down a thick swath of jungle on public land to put in new power lines. In doing so, a roadside crag became visible. Boscarino had never noticed it before, so he hiked up to it, and laid eyes on what would be his first successful development project: Caliche.

He named his first route, La Grieta (5.10c), which translates to “The Crack.” With his Mountain Tools gear and basic knowledge of caving techniques, Boscarino hammered his handmade rebar pitons into limestone from the ground up.

La Grieta was the first of many routes at Caliche. It became evident that the sparsely protectable limestone took a limited amount of gear, and he would need to start drilling. Boscarino went out and bought the only drill he could find, a Bosch. It was a heavy and oversized gas-powered drill, but it got the job done. He slowly gained confidence in his ground-up bolting strategy.

After success at Caliche, he was determined to make a first ascent of Cerro Las Tetas, which, at only 2,213 feet, are two of the tallest formations in eastern Puerto Rico. Eventually, Boscarino made the first ascent of both Tetas, and his route Lizard the Wizard (5.11c) on the Right Teta became the first multi-pitch on the island.

Back in the gear shop, he explains the name: “There’s a lizard that follows you and disappears,” says Boscarino. “Then, fifty feet up, it appears again, then disappears, and in another ten feet, it appears again. It was probably different lizards, but we were like, ‘There it is again!’ And it would make fun of you, like, ‘Hey! Look at me! I’m climbing on nothing!’”

The cliffs of Las Tetas de Cayey were heavily vegetated, and he and his friends’ spent months with machetes just clearing a path and the vegetation on the wall. The routes at Cayey were originally developed to be mixed, requiring both trad gear and bolts for protection. There were notoriously scary runouts that Boscarino eventually retro-bolted himself to make the area more accessible to newer climbers.

Boscarino’s other classic routes at Cerro Las Tetas are Ataxia (5.11c/d), Head to Toe (5.12b), and The Nose (5.10a/b 3 pitches). He named The Nose after the iconic route on El Cap. To prepare for trips to Yosemite Valley, Boscarino would climb his Nose route, lower-off into the upper pitches of Lizard theWizard, and repeat the linkup seven times to prepare for 3,000-foot ascents on El Cap.

Leaving a legacy

Now, new developers have taken up the mantle and continue to grow the sport in Puerto Rico. Sebastian Amaral, Vice President of the Puerto Rico Climbing Association (AEPRI), has helped lead the charge to rebolt the island with titanium.

“Rossano and Edda were two of the original sport climbing developers on the island,” says Amaral.  “The work they’ve left behind granted free access to climbers from all around to enjoy the panoramic views on our beautiful island.”

The new guard of developers have recently developed a crag in the south of the Island, El Semil, featuring a 60 degree roof with “human-sized” tufas and an unsent 5.14 project, Inframundo. Another new crag, Meseta Fronti, in the town of Arecibo, saw an additional 40 routes get put up in less than a year. There is a burgeoning sport climbing scene in Puerto Rico, thanks in part to Boscarino’s early work.

Throughout his 40-year climbing career, Boscarino has established five crags, more than 220 climbs (for context, Mountain Project lists 832 in all of Puerto Rico), and became the first Puerto Rican rock guide to be AMGA accredited. Today, in his mid-60’s, he still develops new routes—most recently, Limber Girl (5.11c) at Cerro Las Tetas. He also runs a Rope and Rescue School in San Juan, where he certifies tower climbers and rope access technicians.

If you’re ever passing through San Juan, rent a car, stop by Aventuras Tierro Adentro, buy Boscarino’s guidebooks, and go enjoy Puerto Rico’s high-quality limestone climbing with the man who laid its foundation.

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