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cuica
Aug 12, 2005, 4:53 PM
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Hello, my name is Sara and I'm a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, in Washington, D.C.
I'm writing a story on buildering on college campuses, and I'm looking to collect your buildering stories (they can be anonymous, if you prefer).
I hope to hear from many of you soon.
Thanks,
Sara
---
Sara Lipka
Staff Reporter
The Chronicle of Higher Education
1255 Twenty-Third Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
tel (202) 466-1043
fax (202) 452-1033
http://chronicle.com
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cuica
Aug 12, 2005, 6:02 PM
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I'm just looking for anything, folks! Maybe you've heard buildering is big at CU...maybe you tried it once and had to run from cops...maybe you tried it twice and the cops didn't care...
Please dash off any and all quick stories -- feel free to e-mail me at sara.lipka@chronicle.com.
I'm pulling my article together in the next few days, so please write soon, if possible!
Sara
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landgolier
Aug 12, 2005, 6:21 PM
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Buildering is damn near a varsity sport at Dartmouth, I think it's largely condoned by the administration but you would have to contact the dartmouth mountaineering club, who may be a bit scarce seeing as how it's August. Their web site states, "Buildering on Campus
A great a place where DMC members boulder on campus is on the walls of Rolling's Chapel. Other campus buildings that are available for top-roping are: Gerry, Bradley, and Bartlett Tower. Check with the current DMC chairs about access and policy regarding buildering." Georgetown has a stone retaining wall right on campus that people use, there are pics of it on this site. Swing by bigupproductions.com and watch the trailer for front range freaks, hilarious campus buildering scene on there. You might try boldering.com, but here and there you will catch more fish if you give us a little bit of assurance about what light you're going to portray buildering in. Not too many regular readers of the Chronicle on here I would guess, but since it's college administrator types reading it most people aren't going to say much unless we know the spin is going to be positive. You might also look into slacklining, which is the other major on-campus climbing-related activity (other than blowing off class when the weather's nice).
HTH
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pancaketom
Aug 12, 2005, 6:41 PM
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One night I spent a fair amount of time setting up a top rope for a 4 story ascent I had been eying for a long time, but wasn't confident of soloing. A security guard saw me and made me take it down... So, I free soloed it - good thing he was looking out for my security.
I did get busted studying on the roof of my dorm once too. Other than nearly falling 3 stories when my feet popped out of a stem... somehow I went from hanging by one hand to standing on the roof almost instantly. Unfortunately I still had to climb down.
Combined with steam tunneling it makes for faux climbing and faux caving on campus.
Not too safe, but probably safer than hazing or binge drinking.
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veganboyjosh
Aug 12, 2005, 6:51 PM
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oh, buildering on campus...
i was gonna tell you about the time i campused up the underside of about 3 stairs outside our apartment building. pulled that second one clean.
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uhighfreak
Aug 12, 2005, 7:06 PM
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I am not sure if this is helpful but there are some people that have posted some "climbing" on the University of Missouri - Columbia campus: http://camm.mu.org/cwiki.py?page=MizzouCampus
Also, I know that the newenglandbouldering.com sight has some postings about climbing at the University of Pennsylvania.
I am not sure if you are going to find a lot of people that want to publicly talk about climbing on campus. I have personally not climbed on my various campuses over the year. I have heard stories of people climbing the sides of buildings and such. But, I do not have a first hand knowledge of these events. Sorry
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jkarns
Aug 12, 2005, 7:08 PM
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I buildered quite a bit as a student at Colgate University in New York state. On time we set up a toprope out of a fourth floor bathroom window. The anchor consisted of part of the window frame and the toilet. After climbing up to the top, a fellow I didn't recognize walked around the corner and asked what we were doing. My partner on the ground was totally silent so I told him, "Rock climbing! Want to try?"
His reply was, "No but I expect you to stop immediately!" What I did not realize is that he was a Residential Advisor! When I got down to the ground he told me, "A girl on my floor told me that there was someone outside her window. The strange part is that her room is on the third floor!"
Also we loved to climb on this bridge, and campus safety would chase us off all the time.
http://karnsquality.com/...ndom/joshbridge1.jpg
If you include this story, please use my full name: Josh Karns
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ecjohnson
Aug 12, 2005, 7:43 PM
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Here at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, a friend of mine and I have gone around and climbed to the 2nd story windows of some of the dorms and started knocking on them. The dorms are only two stories, or else we'd go higher. We have never gotten anyone in their room though, but I think it'd be pretty damn funny. we have a huge clocktower that a lot of people talk about climbing but I don't know if it's been done.
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smax
Aug 12, 2005, 8:48 PM
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I sometimes wish I had taken more pictures. There were many climbing excursions around the Syracuse University campus. Highlights included the Hall of languages, various retention walls, a nearby graveyard (one story includes a train track, some rope, a train and a little panic), rappelling inside the art building (I have pictures if you're interested. We called it performance art and had an audience rather than the usual public safety issues), and a few others. If any of this sounds interesting, feel free to drop me a PM.
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monkeyarm
Aug 12, 2005, 9:30 PM
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edit
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veganboyjosh
Aug 12, 2005, 9:49 PM
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actually i did put my buildering skills to good use once, when a friend of mine broke her dorm key off in her lock--from the inside. she couldn't unlock it, and neither could hal, the maintenance guy, cos half the key was still in the lock. so i climbed up to her window on the 2nd floor, and helped her fish the half a key out.
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hdiddy
Aug 12, 2005, 10:44 PM
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At Towson University I to have climbed the front of Ward Hall also there's an underground buildering guide that some students put together cataloging all the possible problems on campus. Its got everything from quickies to extended chimney climbs up 3 stories.
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mattamatta
Aug 12, 2005, 11:04 PM
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I dont know much about buildering at Cal Poly other than that there's a crack between cement slabs up the side of a building near the climbing wall that has some pro stuck in there. Not sure if people actually lead up it or not.
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cthulu
Aug 15, 2005, 7:52 PM
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I go to boarding school in New Hampshire so while I am technically not included in this articles focus, I can relate. We soloed the roughley cut granite of the admissions building at my school (St. Paul's) untill security caught us and yelled for a while about liability. I think they were more concerned with the massive amounts of chalk we left on the wall. Good times.
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ryan112ryan
Aug 15, 2005, 9:16 PM
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hey guys, cuica said shed send me the story when she finished it, ill make sure to post it, or a link or somthing. they need pics of people buildering that are in college, that will give persimison to print it with the story, anyone have any quality shots?
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raymondjeffrey
Aug 23, 2005, 3:24 AM
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I climbed all the way to the top of the Friary at Quincy University in Quincy, IL. It is 8 stories tall. I was climbing and I could see the priests watching sports center in their rooms (private Catholic school). If you get caught doing this you get immediately expelled. The climbing is on this latticed like brick and it is really easy to climb. In fact a guy in constuction boots could climb it but only if he is cool headed up really high. I was surprised to see that the roof had this corogated medal like stuff. It would have made a hell of a racket had I chose to walk on it. Down climbing it was very scarry because some of the bricks were loose!! Use my name, it is Jeff Raymond Quincy University Class of '94.
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bandidopeco
Aug 23, 2005, 4:02 AM
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My only real story of buildering on campus (back in my UCSB days) was spurned by a challenge from a non climbing friend. The day before I injured my knee (to be more exact I bruised the muscle directly above the knee bad enough so I didn't walk normally for about a week.) and when walking past the DLG dinning commons my non-climbing but very fit (ex-Gold's Gym trainer) friend Jay asked me if it was possible to climb onto the roof.
The one-story building is built with textured bricks that provide plenty of one-inch edges for hand and foot holds. The crux comes at the top, where a 3 foot plus, slightly protruding band of blank concrete tops the structure. It was this that my friend didn't think i could get by.
I easily climbed the bricks with sandals on and the concrete had a nice undercling which I used to move higher and then just did a body tension, undercling, reach move to grab the top and pull myself up. Coming down was a bit trickier because of my leg, but no problems.
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gremlin
Aug 23, 2005, 6:12 AM
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Quite possibly the hottest girl that has ever talked to me struck up a conversation with me today because apparently it was "really cool that I was climbing so high on the buildings." I pretty much dropped the ball, but since I climb there a few days a week, and I now know what time she is in that area returning from class, perhaps there will be another chance. Or not. Either way buildering is fun, although half the cops on campus do throw you off.
/not much of a story
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mr-pink
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Aug 23, 2005, 8:16 AM
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It wasn't at campus, because we don't really have such thing here.
I was waiting for a ride to a climbing gym, and as we were bored of waiting.
We buildered!
It was a 3metre high wall, a bricked wall. We didn't want to climb on top it, just, you know, take the ledge.
after a while, I figured out a route, and while I was doing it, a car stoped by.
The people in the car seemed not to like us climbing there, they asked us what we were doing, and if we were burglars.
We tried to calmy explain we just wanted to top it and then come down.
But they didn't really believe us, they got a little mad, so we sed: we'll stop it.
that was my first buildering adventure.
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edge
Aug 23, 2005, 12:48 PM
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Right in front of our school of higher learning was an interstate.
I heard of some people who, high on LSD, would climb up the aluminum tower that supported the interstate signs and would camp out over the flow of traffic going 65 MPH+ below them.
Of course, I never personally condoned this activity, nor did I ever ask their names. These sort of people disgust me.
Yes, utter disgust. :wink:
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edge
Aug 23, 2005, 12:51 PM
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Also:
In college my dorm room was on the third floor right next door to the custodians room and the garbage pails. The custodian was a creepy looking old guy who would walk into the bathrooms and stand in front of the showers (no curtains) and spark up a ciggy while watching you shower. Anyway, every morning at 6:30 am he would ignore the other floors and start in this room next to me by emptying all of the trash into one can. Of course they would be filled with beer bottles and made enough noise to wake the dead. I used to complain, then yell, then I even tried to sabotage the man, but he ignored me and serious measures were called for.
One night, a certain climber who lived in the dorm was able to gain access to the janitors inner room by jimmying the lock with a credit card. Once safely inside, he locked the door, then opened up his bag of tools. Carefully sawing the pewter bridge that held together the trigger for the fire sprinkler head, he then tied a loop of string around the trigger and inserted a pencil through loops on either end of the string, thus keeping the trigger bars compressed.
At this point another piece of string was tied to the pencil, and then passed around a chair leg (to change the direction of force) and finally tied to the inside of the door knob. The trap was set, and it became time for the crafty climber to make his escape.
Opening up the third floor window, he gingerly lowered his body out where, hanging from the window sill by one arm, he managed to close the window back to where the auto lock feature snapped closed on the inside. He then did an iron cross move to a gutter, where it was a relatively easy 5.7 reverse layback to the ground.
The next morning, I heard the familiar tap of his gumby leather shoes coming down the hall, followed by the crashing beer bottles. True to form, he then took out his key and went for the closet to get replacement garbage bags. I'll never forget the sounds of the next few minutes. The door opened, and there was a five second delay, just enough for him to enter the room and wonder what the string was that just snapped down from the ceiling. The next sound was of rusty, stale pressurized water soaking our unexpecting villain, followed by the loud blare of the fire alarm.
By coincidence I was fully dressed, but the majority of the dorm was still in sleeping attire, and many who were showering had to evacuate with just a towel around their waist.
The janitor quit on the spot and was replaced by a Jerry Garcia look-alike who would get stoned with the denizens of the dorm.
I often think of that crafty climber, and wonder whatever happened to him...
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cuica
Sep 8, 2005, 9:43 PM
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http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i02/02a00601.htm
The link should work. Please contact me at sara.lipka@chronicle.com if it doesn't.
Thanks so much to all of you. I really appreciated your help with this story. The pics were great, too, but unfortunately we don't have them online -- only in the print edition.
Sara
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cuica
Sep 8, 2005, 9:49 PM
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Just kidding. Use this link:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i02/02a00601.htm
login: chronicle
temporary password (good through 9/11/05): cather
temporary password (good through 9/18/05): anthony
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