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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 11, 2013 - 07:28am PT
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I posted the following on the Sonora/Highway 108 guidebook thread (as an aside) but it is worth perhaps seeing what people do, outside of the real thing and gyms.
Buildering, UC Berkeley has (or had) some of the best. There used to be, maybe still are, some great splitter 'cracks' on Memorial Stadium, just watch out for campus police. My main high school climbing partner, (a year ahead of me), Steve Fish peeled of buildering about 30+' on a building near Boalt Hall, and limped away (it was temporary, watchers were aghast, but he healed).
BTW, I'd imagine the Arboretum at Columbia College is not in the guidebook. Understandable, but great bouldering. And in the rain/snow we'd boulder (buildering) on the arches and walls (granite 'blocks' and rocks) of Manzanita Hall as the big balcony overhead kept the arches and walls dry.
So, what buildering have you lot done?
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jul 11, 2013 - 08:05am PT
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I builder constantly and luckily the walls are padded to keep me from hurting myself....The bars are there for your protection...RJ
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Dr. Christ
Mountain climber
State of Mine
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Jul 11, 2013 - 11:03am PT
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I had 5 walls in SLC that I could choose from on my bus ride home. The building on 3300 S and 700 E was my favorite... used to be a Checker Auto Parts. Rounded granite river cobbles forever. Nice grass landing. Shade. PUMPY!
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Magic Ed
Trad climber
Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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Jul 11, 2013 - 12:19pm PT
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The Physical Ed. Building at the U. of Wisconsin in Whitewater used to have fantastic buildering. Hundreds of feet of traversing on small holds, cool overhangs, laybacks, chimneys and bearhugs up to 40 feet high. Unfortunately they've expanded the building and eliminated 90% of the good stuff.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Jul 11, 2013 - 12:21pm PT
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Used to builder outside of the Eastern Mountain Sports in Ardmore PA while I was in college as an undergraduate. It was a schist rock support wall for the SEPTA regional railroad. I'd say 12'-to-18' high over a flat sidewalk landing. Great fingertip/forearm workout during breaks and after work @ EMS. As a bonus, it was well lit in the evenings and even though the cops saw us climbing there, we never had a problem. I suppose if we had pads, that might have been the tipping point.
BTW, this was the same summer Kaulk and .... that Brit (not Fawcett...) free climbed Lost Arrow for Wide World of Sports. So that puts a date on the fun.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Jul 11, 2013 - 12:52pm PT
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buildering the oakdale bank was a bad idea..on several occasions..
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jul 11, 2013 - 04:07pm PT
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Buildering for us guys in Berzerkeley was spontaneous, largely.
Outside of bars, for example.
It's not "tradition" to ascend campus buildings here in the US, as it SEEMS to be in Britain. The dons likely partook in this Jones-itching pastime back when they were young and full of spunk, willing to put a fly in the face of the administration. I never had the university experience in full measure, but understand tradition.
Robbins and the Kreh Krew knew where to go and when and it must have been more fun back then, too, when phones and cars weighed tons.
The best thing about building climbing is that you don't bother with gear, usually. The worst thing would be to get stuck up there!
I've done the old Memorial Stadium cracks as a planned event with Hamm. Anything else was on the fly.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1954729&msg=2040362#msg2040362
Here you are, Mr. Sawyer: the very.
Nice idea for a thread, BTW.
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splitter
Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Jul 11, 2013 - 04:27pm PT
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What's your experience? Started climbing buildings long before I climbed stone, back when I was around 10. But, everyone does it, even respectable climbers like the Bird & Warbler. I recall them bouldering on the stone studded (similar to Mr. Mouses pic) post office in Yose after a snow storm early one Spring ('74). They were working a traverse and I took a snowball and lobbed it around 40-50 yards and nailed the Warbler dead center (of his back, meant to splat the wall between them). He had his back to us, looked like he was about to come off/barndoor, but did a remarkable recovery and continued on (as did I). Anyway, never heard a word about it...lucky me! Now they got rock gyms, so i imagine it has tapered off some.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jul 11, 2013 - 04:29pm PT
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Mouse, buildering at UC Berkeley came to my mind, too. The front of Doe Library has some interesting problems, and Memorial Stadium's expansion cracks helped teach me good hand crack technique when the cops weren't looking. There was a parking garage (On Channing, IIRR [which is doubtful]) that had about a three-story fist crack, that I saw one person lieback.
The trippiest problems I did were on the Bancroft side of the Student Union, because it had some uncomfortable moves OTD, and on Callahan Hall, where a difficult undercling and roof move led to a very flared lieback with a big drop. I later found that someone broke a femur falling off that lieback. The pillars on the side of Eschelman Hall were good OW size.
There were lots of others.
John
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Jul 11, 2013 - 04:44pm PT
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We used to do a lot of buildering at Stanford University in Palo Alto back in the 1970s. The chalk was starting to get really ugly, so we did a big clean-up and stopped using chalk there.
A lot of the buildings in the Sunnyvale and Mountain View area had stone façades that were dead vertical, which made for great buildering and finger strength training. You could do very long traverses...
One day we were buildering and a security guard came out - he asked, "What are you guys doing, training for El Capitan?"
(:
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nouveau
climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jul 11, 2013 - 04:44pm PT
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The little buildering I have done was in the UK. Clint provided the source, the source provided the inspiration.
Source: The Night Climbers of Cambridge
Getting caught meant rustication (a term that was new to me) so I wasn't too bold with my attempts but fun times were had nonetheless.
-Job
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jul 11, 2013 - 10:13pm PT
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First buildering experience was, oddly, in the valley. The round cobblestone walls of the new visitor center with Dick Ellsworth. Second must have been the Berkeley campus and city cracks with Mouse. San Francisco's ocean beach sea wall....An impossible finger crack on the ramp wall. Not to be outdone were the brick walls at Chico state. Always came in the second story window for all my art classes.
Our house in Merced had a very difficult window sill to widow sill traverse.
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storer
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jul 11, 2013 - 10:39pm PT
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The William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre (Berkeley campus) offered a very fun climb. In the early '60's the UCHC would climb a route between two Doric columns which make up the an inside corner of the stage, I remember the NW corner. An easy but unprotected lead up the chimney between two columns brings one to the capitals atop them. Reaching up, as I recall after nearly 50 years, there was a huge eyebolt which could be clipped for the mantle onto the ledge atop the column. I think the eyebolt was used used to hang banners across the stage and it was solid. A few more moves and a mantle onto the roof completed the one pitch.
The descent was the highlight. Down a rickety ladder inside a dark tube and outside a locked (from the outside) door to the outside, hopefully undetected.
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jul 11, 2013 - 10:45pm PT
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Our Brother Flame Randy met his end on the concrete rivet route up the 90 ft cross on mt Davidson in SF. Many epics in the mountains and this is the one that got him.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Jul 12, 2013 - 09:29am PT
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Does this qualify as buildering?
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Roots
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Jul 12, 2013 - 11:13am PT
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The sht is always too dirty for me and the cops no likey here in OC...but there is plenty to do.
I have an excellent French video that is all buildering. Let me know look around for it.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jul 12, 2013 - 04:23pm PT
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Storer, your mention of the UCHC reminded me of the stunt we used to do in the early 1970's at the annual Activities Fair in the fall. We would string a rope between the tops of the Student Union and Eschelman Hall, as well as ropes from each end to the ground. We'd jumar up the side of Eschelman, Tyrolean across to the Student Union, and rappel down. Since it was a university-sanctioned activity, there was no danger of free world intervention (i.e. the cops busting us). One year, we had Oski rap from the top of the Student Union.
John
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splitter
Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Jul 12, 2013 - 04:35pm PT
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Does this qualify as buildering? Yep! High altitude buildering!
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