On Sunday afternoon I headed down to the massive, derelict estate behind London's Elephant and Castle tube station. Once Europe's largest housing estate, it's now Europe's largest playground.
I've done some "questionable" soloing in my day, but only questionable in the eyes of the observer. I've always felt in control. That's the soloist's secret. Be solid beyond doubt.
At least half of the stuff in this video looks certifiably nuts. My fingers are slipping all over the keyboard -- I can hardly type, my hands are so sweaty.
The big question: is this guy in control? His parkour skills look passable -- just good enough to pull off the trick. His climbing skills, about the same?
Someone (John Bachar?) once said, "soloing is a gift for the best climbers on their best days."
John "Yabo" Yablonski was a 1970s Yosemite climber and soloist, not known for the impressiveness of his endeavours, but for the style in which he accomplished these. Yabo, once stuck halfway up a pitch, saved himself by jumping and catching a nearby tree branch. His climbing style was so sketchy that onlookers would vomit with stress. Watching this video, I know how they feel.
Stumbled across this on twitter. No idea who this fella is but his website suggests that he's just done a first ascent of an 9a sport route so I'm thinking he's quite good at this climbing thing. Bit showy but a nice little vid.
Hey guys, I've been lurking here for a while. Thought I'd get around to finally post some pics. I'm more into urbex/infiltration than buildering, but to access some of the places I did have to climb up some things.
It's been a long time since I've gone deep water soloing. This video, although a bit more focused on editing than climbing, is a good inspiration to go out and do what we all love to do - climb. Also freefall into water. And there's a girl in a bikini - that's good too.
Main Entry: builder
Pronunciation: 'bil-d&r
Function: verb
Etymology: from boulder, to climb boulders.
Date: circa 1970
Synonyms: urban climbing, stegophilism
1. to climb a man-made structure designed for purposes other than climbing.
