Night climbing in cambridge

I saw a link to this fascinating book online and thought some of you guys would be interested: http://www.insectnation.org/projects/nightclimbers/ncoc/ncoc
(I also love the way it's written, so 30s)

Does anyone know if this kind of thing goes on in oxford as well? It sounds like just the sort of irresponsible, immature and dangerous thing I'd like to get into.

Reply 1

Thales

Man. Some of those pictures are sweet.

Reply 2

FadeToBlackout

Finally found the website.

I've climbed teh side of teh FML in Clare (there's a convienient chimney) but havn't gone further.

Stll, tis is another interesting tradition.

Reply 3

Helenia

I believe that CCTV has killed off a lot of this sort of thing. My uncle used to be involved way back in the Dark Ages when he was at Trinity, but now that the Porters can see almost everywhere, it's harder to do without getting caught.

Reply 4

Chumbaniya

That was brilliant. Irresponsible, dangerous, and probably no longer possible, but brilliant nonetheless. I liked the way it was written too, and the pictures were good.

Reply 5

FadeToBlackout

Helen: What if the porter on duty is Ray? Hmm....

I think I may try the side of the FML again.

Reply 6

DrunkHamster

What about at 2am? Surely the porters aren't sad enough to stay up all night on the off chance they might catch someone on the roof (I say this having not started yet, and I realise they may well be that sad)

Reply 7

Helenia

DrunkHamster

Porters in most main college sites are on duty (in shifts!) 24 hours a day.

Reply 8

FadeToBlackout

Another problem you will probably have is that they've changed a lot of teh drainpipes from the sturdy cast-iron jobbies of teh thirties to new plastic ones. And I don't trust a plastic pipe to hold my weight...

And yes, I ahve been wandering around Cambridge looking at drainpipes. There's a promising one in a certain location, though, but I'm not going to tell ayone about it as that may well be too irresponsible!

Other routes are off limits now too. For example, the Caius library which is mentioned and described as a starter route has its front face floodlit, and so that's impossible to climb.

In short, nightclimbing is a lot harder than it used to be...

Reply 9

lady_daisychain

its like freerunning.... without the running :rolleyes:

Reply 10

waitwhoisthis

I read somewhere that sadly it never happened to the same degree in Oxford because in general the stone used there is softer (just a quirk of location and material choices), so it's much more dangerous.