Urban Climbing

[Jake.]

Hey guys, was just wondering if any of you have done it out of curiosity.

I climbed a crane with some friends that were into parkour one time, and vowed not to do it since but keep getting urges to do more stuff.

How illegal is it? And... Are these urges bad? Silly question but it's been on my mind for a while and I can't exactly talk to mates because they'll just say I'm an idiot and I'm stupid, may be a bit different on a trials forum because the majority of you know we all have to be risk takers to do trials. And seeing as you may not die failing a move in trials you'll still have good judgement when it comes to risk assessment...

[bikeperson45]

I kind of hate urban climbing. I love climbing and free running kind of things but it just looks stupid to me. I just don't get why a photo with your feet dangling off the edge is worth risking your life for, and I know it's one of those 'uh man there's just nothing like it kind of things' but I value my life enough to not risk it to that extent.

Plus I don't want to get a criminal record, so there's that too.

[Jake.]

It's not for a picture, quite happily do it with no social media involved that's the thing.

[zetecmk2]

used to do it a bit, but did a phone mast a couple of years ago....and got a bit scared.....weird, huh? things change as you get older!

[Azarathal]

I'm waiting for Stuart Thomas to comment, I don't know about recently but I know he used to do it a lot in the past.

[Tony Harrison]

As with anything, you soon realise that the illegality and the risk are on sliding scales - it's not black and white. Often we will make false assumptions about the danger in something based on general opinion and the number of warning signs. For example, climbing a standard tower crane via the ladder is safer than smoking fags, driving a car on the motorway and standing on a crowded Tube platform during rush hour. But as with anything, when tons of people are doing something, it's easy to feel comfortable doing it too. When there's an activity that 'you're not supposed to do', it's assumed it's inherently dangerous.

There's a lot to be said for making individual objective assessments of the danger of any given activity taking into account your own abilities, equipment and preparedness.

There are those Russian guys who do chin-ups dangling from 600ft cranes, but then there are people who rope-up and climb something in a totally safe manner. You don't have to risk your life at all.

As for illegality... you can sneak into a building site and not break a criminal law, you can climb a crane and not break a criminal law. However there are ways you could get in trouble, for example some of the big bridges now quote laws on the theme of endangering others (for example if you fell or dropped something and landed on someone/a car). As with the safety aspect, you can gauge your risk - climbing a small crane at night is probably not that risky, but climbing up a prominent landmark or bridge could get you into a whole ton of trouble.

But then isn't this all what makes it fun?

[Dave Anscombe]

I love to climb <3 Like trials riders look at things and think i can tap and hook that .I look at things and find a route to climb it.

You come alive when climbing -Your in that present moment where there is little to no thought at all .To me thats living .

Go out and climb jake

[bikeperson45]

I'm mainly speaking about the whole thing of people dangling off a buildings and crazy Russians. I wouldn't say climbing up a crane ladder is safer then any of those things you mentioned just because the penalty for failure is worse in almost all instances. Fall off a ladder without a harness you're more screwed then getting in an accident on the motorway. My perspectives changed quite a bit and now instead of seeing photos of people doing dangerous climbing stuff and thinking 'that's awesome' I just end up thinking about their parents if they fell and broke their spine.

And I'm fairly sure cranes are all private property so climbing them is the same as trespassing, and I'm a big fan of CRBs come back clean.

I'm probably speaking about the minority of urban climbers who are doing the crazy stuff but my perspective still makes me think potential risks outweigh the potential benefits. And it might not be the same but practising climbing in purpose built places or just less private owned areas is a much better alternative.

[Tony Harrison]

You can fall off your bike and break your back...

One of the most interesting things about minority activities is that we get p'ssed off about how other people misunderstand it (calling trials BMX, all the 'where's you seat?' crap) but then we do the same about other sports and activities. Tower cranes are almost always a series of short ladders, a fall on which would unlikely kill you or break your legs. Last time I was waiting for a Tube train, if there'd been a panic or surge as the train came in, one hundred people would've gone under the train - there was just no space. Last time I was in a near miss motorway accident, if the lorry had actually hit the coach instead of missing it by 2 meters, I'd be dead. And actually the time I fell off my trials bike wearing a helmet and knocked myself out, if I'd not bothered to wear the helmet I'd be dead or permanently brain injured.

You may value clean CRBs, others don't. Also I got caught climbing things, got interviewed by MOD cops, got arrested and put in a cell for another misadventure on a building, but my record in the UK does not show any arrests, charges or convictions. We could spend our whole lives never doing anything risky because of 'what ifs'.

Trials riders also trespass, and damage public property - there's a criminal offence right there if someone wanted to push for it.

I guess it's all perspective. Easy to generalise when you don't do something.

[stoozie]

I'm waiting for Stuart Thomas to comment, I don't know about recently but I know he used to do it a lot in the past.

Correct, I have done it a lot, and still do occasionally! However with a child on the way I have calmed down a bit and won't be climbing as much.

I climb for the photos, and I guess the rush of being up high. It's not just cranes for me, I've done a few high buildings too.

The police don't really take kindly too it though, my last crane climb resulted in the police getting called and they didn't seem to happy, but I managed to get away with a slight telling off.

Feel free to PM me if you want!

[bikeperson45]

You can fall off your bike and break your back...

You can, that’s not what I meant though. Risk of falling of a bike and braking your back is 3%, risk of braking your back when falling from the side of a building is 60%. Those percentages are guesses but that’s the idea and why I don’t think the comparisons fair. Insurance for builders is expensive until work takes place on levels higher then a forth story, not because insurance agency are cutting them a deal but because the difference between ground level building work and side of a multiple story building work is paying out for hospital bills vs paying for a funeral.

And in a tube station there's a lot more contingency in place for those situations. When falling without a rope contingency is absent in a lot of cases.

I guess it's all perspective. Easy to generalise when you don't do something.

I don’t think I’m generalizing too much here since it is something I’ve done a fair bit of. Just took the one time of being on top a building and watching a friend trip too close to the edge for my liking to think it wasn’t for me. So yea, perspective

[Tony Harrison]

The percentages aren't a fair comparison - you'd have to multiply by risk of falling off your bike/falling off a building.

Also we should remember that when an urban explorer says 'climbing' they often mean taking a ladder or stairs, and there's not necessarily any risk at all. For example a rooftop can have a chest-high wall all the way around it - not very risky at all.