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gonamok
climber
dont make me come over there
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 25, 2011 - 10:56pm PT
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Buildering - weve all done it. When my climbing partner was my roomate back in the 70s we would get so psyched to climb that we would walk down El Cajon boulevard, climbing the fronts of buildings. Of course when youre liebacking a window frame at 1am, you look alot like a burglar, and we got stopped by the cops more than once, but always talked our way out of trouble. I was traversing a big stone building in St Petersburg, Russia once, and drew the attention of machinegun toting police. It was grim for a minute, then they saw my climbing shoes and gave a hearty thumbs up and let me go.
How about you? Any buildering stories?
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Grampa
Trad climber
So Cal
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Nov 25, 2011 - 11:00pm PT
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Back in the 70's we called that "Buildering". Did a few routes on the UCLA campus and got mostly odd stares.
I heard rumors of a climber trying to pound a piton at Berkeley, using a Chemistry book for a hammer. Smart guy, finally found a good use for chemistry.
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deepnet
Boulder climber
San Diego
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Nov 25, 2011 - 11:44pm PT
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I remember us being checked out for quite awhile before being released after buildering on the stone facade of the Cal 1st bank at night on El Cajon Blvd.
Hell we had to climb anything that was in front of us back then.
I remenber the X pillers at the La Jolla Museum of Art as being a flashy looking solo back then too! Got a lot of attention from the tourist!
I got the worst ankle sprain of my life when I came off that liquor store
window in Pacific Beach.
Fun stuff for sure Ron!
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Nov 25, 2011 - 11:58pm PT
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My bro-in-law got a couple floors up the Ahwahnee Hotel when some guests freaked, and threw wine glasses at him from thier room.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Nov 26, 2011 - 12:41am PT
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There is the classic Climbers Guide to Cal Tech
This link leads to a 3.2MB PDF of the guide:
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~alpine/w/images/2/27/ClimbersGuideToCaltech.pdf
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apogee
climber
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Nov 26, 2011 - 12:45am PT
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Years ago, my little brother & I were buildering the front of the Safeway store in Bishop and got thrown off the property. Renegades, that's us.
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The Alpine
Big Wall climber
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Nov 26, 2011 - 01:26am PT
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This buildering is unusual if not paradisical...
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Social climber
Retired to Appalachia
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Nov 26, 2011 - 01:30am PT
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We used to do a lot of buildering on the campus at Stanford University back in the 1970s. Eventually there was so much chalk everywhere on the pink sandstone blocks that the adminstration ordered us to clean up the mess or they would ban buildering altogether. So there we were with our toothbrushes and buckets of water...
In Sunnyvale (Silicon Valley) I used to go buildering on the rock wall of a semiconductor manufacturing plant. It was such an incredible finger and forearm pump. One day the guard came by and asked, "What are you guys doing, practicing for El Calpitan?"
"YES!" we replied.
At San Jose State University there were some PUNISHING vertical/parallel fist cracks in concrete, and some very high but easy chimney climbs on the SUB. I always fantasized about finishing the climb by chimneying out under the overhang and mantling onto the roof, but I never got the balls to do it: http://blogs.sjsu.edu/today/files/2011/04/student_union5_web.jpg
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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Nov 26, 2011 - 09:18am PT
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The Big A at Anaheim Stadium, So Cal.
The Cross chimney at Pepperdine University
The Viterbi School of Engineering Cracks at USC
The old Mountaineering Shop mantles in Laguna Beach
BofA in Bishop, Ca
Peace
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Nov 26, 2011 - 11:29am PT
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Nov 26, 2011 - 12:00pm PT
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Thanks Tami! Great story.
Similar thing happened to me, circa 1977. One of the finest buildering walls in downtown Cardiff, Wales happens to be the exterior wall of the prison. They used high quality stone, excellent for finger-training. It's about 25 or 30 feet high. The best part of the wall is right on the sidewalk. Lots of people walking by, all day. Spent an hour there, traversing to and fro (I never got my feet more than a few inches off the ground, seemed harmless enough....), and was just putting my regular shoes back on, when the cops arrived. Uh oh.
I was expecting a quick two-minute what-were-you-doing interview. Instead, I spent about four hours in the local police station. It did not help that the section of wall I was on housed the high-security section. Nor that I was living in Newcastle on Tyne at the time, and that one of the prison's prize, most violent, high-risk-of-escape prisoners, just the other side of said wall, was from Newcastle.
It slowly dawned on me that they took this very seriously. They were patient, polite, but relentless in their questioning. As was I in my answers. Finally they sent someone around to the local climbing store, Outdoor Action, where Pat Littlejohn and whoever else was there (once they picked themselves up off the floor, where they'd collapsed in laughter) vouched for me being just a stupid climber, and probably not trying to break out anyone.
They finally let me go. But, ahem, be warned: stay away from prison walls, however alluring the buildering possibilities may be.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Nov 26, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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During my first quarter at Georgia Tech in the fall of 1954, I would climb out of the upper dormitory window about 11 pm, sometimes with a friend, carrying a rope, and go up on the hill to climb on some of the buildings and the football stadium. Great fun. One time I was doing a free rappel off the stadium down to a narrow road below when the area lit up as a campus cop car approached. I stopped about 30 feet up and pulled up the remaining rope which had been hanging directly in the cars path, waited until it passed, then completed the rappel. Fond memories. I used a little gymnastic chalk at the time, possibly the first time ever that chalk was used buildering, although some of the "human flies" before my time may have chalked up. No one knows - one of the little mysteries of the past.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Nov 26, 2011 - 08:43pm PT
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Dartmouth had some good ones...
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 13, 2013 - 01:39am PT
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From Marc Jensen's 1988 Bay Area guide, Berkeley photo
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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May 13, 2013 - 01:40am PT
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Two words; Jamboree Wall
all the holds on the ceiling.
twas awesome
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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May 13, 2013 - 02:12am PT
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The GGB is a good highball problem, I hear.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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May 13, 2013 - 09:34am PT
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BITD, I used to do a ton of building in the San Diego area. The known and developed climbing areas weren't quite as extensive as they are now, and my friends and I would look for anything to climb. This included splitter off-hand 10d / 11a cracks in the San Diego State University parking garage, the Bank of America building in Poway, some funky cement pours here and there around SD, etc.
The weird thing is, I'm still constantly scoping out buildering possibilities, even here in Seattle. There are some splitter 5.6ish cracks supporting the Alaska Way Viaduct, for instance.
My son has, through the years, said to me with regularity, "Dad, please get down!" as he looks around to see who's watching. I think that maybe climbers take longer to grow up than other people. Just a theory.
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