Chupacabra

UPDATE 7/2016:

the main reason to do this route is the 2nd pitch finger crack through the bulge. The first pitch is mostly dirty and unremarkable until the last 20', and now there is a good way to avoid the choss and climb the good stuff. The face climbing to the right of the first pitch turned out to be a good bolted climb:

The Politician

. In the course of creating that route, we removed the rusting fixed pins and bolted the upper section of the first pitch. Combining

The Politician

into the 2nd pitch of Chupacabra makes it worth 3 stars IMHO.

Original description:

the route cris-crosses with

Vampire

at several points. There is some loose rock on this route but nothing I think will come off any time soon. Just be careful what you grab and what you put pro behind. We trundled all of the loose stuff that we could get to move, so it should be fine--but this is more of an adventure climb.

P1 (10a). Follow thin cracks up blocky terrain a few feet right of the large, dirty corner. The upper third of this pitch has nice moves along a thin seam in good rock. We left 3 fixed knifeblades for pro in this section (UPDATE 7/2016: now bolted). Look for a 2 bolt anchor to the left after the knifeblade section. This anchor is about 10 feet below where

Vampire

crosses in from the right.

P2 (10+/11-?). Climb up and right, into the left-facing corner between "

Vampire

(P2)" and "

The Good, the Bad, and the Jacked

". The corner leans right for about 20 feet and climbs a lot more interesting than it looks from below. Enjoy the jug rest below the roof (often heavily chalked from people on

Good, Bad,...

), and then punch it through the bulge above on great finger locks. This crack leads you to the slab that is at the end of P2 of the

Vampire

. Belay as for P2 of the

Vampire

.

Several options exist from here. It is possible to climb right from this belay and get to the chains on "

Stage Fright

" or "

Trash It...

". Or you can follow the

Vampire

to the left and other rappel options along that route.

Start about 20 feet left of

That's Weak

, and about 5 feet right of a large gully.

Descent: the first anchor is equipped for rappelling. If you do the second pitch (recommended!), use one of the descent options mentioned above.

We didn't place anything larger than a #2 Camalot, but depending on what you want to finish on, I would suggest a standard rack to at least a #3. The gear is mostly stoppers and small cams, so you might double on the Aliens up to a red.

P2 is heavy on the #0.5 Camalot/red Alien size. I used 3 on the pitch (but I sewed it up) and 1 more in the anchor. You could probably find other gear, but these were the most obvious and didn't use up good holds.