As I have said before the title of this website is ripped from a song by the band Thrice entitled The Melting Point of Wax. The lyrics of which tell the tale of Icarus, the son of a mad scientist who took to the skies on a pair of wings constructed from wax and bird feathers. The overlying theme of this wonderful track is that of testing one’s own limits, even if finding those limits might mean dire consequences. So what? Well lets be honest, most of the time the stuff we get in to isn’t all that dangerous. At least not from a physical standpoint. But every now and then an idea comes along where the namesake will be lived up to; where safety is not merely unpromised, but not even present. So along came a pair of industrial strength suction cup handles and the wheels started turning.
Photograph by Bouncewiggle
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The television droned on as stared into my laptop screen at the first blank page of a paper I had due the next day. Like I always am when I try to do homework I was desperate for distractions. I leaned back and let my head fall back over the top of the couch and contemplated the texture of my ceiling. Then, lightbulb. I felt like climbing a building. I had one in mind that wouldn’t require an all night mission, and I started sending a couple texts to see if anyone wanted to belay me. We agreed to meet up at about nine.
I sat on the trunk of my car, my feet propped up on the back bumper. I anxiously smoked my cigarillo and tried not to seam annoyed with the people who asked about my bottle-cap covered vehicle. It was 9:30, my friends had let me know that they were delayed, stuck on a rooftop waiting for some bystander to go back to minding his own business. I walked around to the front of the building and looked at the route. It was early and there were still a shit ton of people in the building and a couple milling about outside.
When my help showed up I quickly walked through the plan with them and Snail went up into the 7th floor to set up the belay. John and Mascarah stayed at ground level outside to photograph. I checked over my harness and made sure I had all the gear I’d need before walking straight up to the concrete wall. I had to traverse a wide window ledge before I could get to the brick façade. The route was basically a ladder made from red brick which had been lade with four inch gaps between each brick which were offset at each row making a 5 foot wide checker pattern most of the way up the structure. I made it up the first two floors rather quickly. When I stepped onto the roof of the two story west wing which adjoined the taller 9 story tower I noticed that a guy was sitting at a desk on the other side of the glass window right in front of me. I didn’t have time to worry about whether he’d seen me so when I got the rope tied in I went back to climbing.
Photograph by John Morris
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Christmas Eve. Most normal folks think time with family, hyper kids elated about their forthcoming shiny junk under the tree, A Christmas Story marathon on TBS, etc etc. However Christmas Eve, for me, means less cops. It means lazy guards or no guards. It means less busy-bodies with Homeland Security on speed dial. Christmas Eve presents an opportunity to get into a secured area more easily than any other time. So, after bypassing the alarm and jimmying a locked door open I started a long and arduous climb up the steel lattice. The goal was to summit a 154 meter building undergoing construction of a new facade.
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