I first read about climbing on buildings in Phil Ashby’s Unscathed where he writes about his participation in the long-standing Cambridge tradition of nightclimbing (or buildering as Wikipedia tells me). His stories are a funny as hell and the book is well worth reading just on that basis, but I remember thinking Cambridge seemed an odd place for such a sport to develop. On second thought it really isn’t as there’s hardly anything else in the neighbourhood to keep rock climbers occupied.

My thoughts returned to this phenomenon via Gadling via Slate articles on odd travel guides among which you can find Night Climbers of Cambridge by Whipplesnaith. Further browsing got me to InsectNation where you can read not one but two of these historic guides on classic building routes on Cambridge. As well as a few newspaper articles. All scanned and OCRed for your convenience. A fabulous resource… if I’m ever in Cambridge ;)

The shopkeepers of Market Square were the first to learn of the most famous climb in Cambridge history. Opening their stalls one day in 1965, they saw a banner strung between two of the spires of King’s College chapel that read “Peace in Vietnam”. Of the four who put it there, one would become a Labour MP, another a professor of law. The other two would soon be dead.
Sunday Times feature, June 2007

But buildering is not limited to Cambridge university. Buildering.net and Freakclimbing.com bring us some interesting photos from around the world.

The south end of the roman era wall in Ljubljana has been a popular urban climbing spot for as long as I remember as is the synagogue in Maribor, Wikipedia has more on other locations.

Is on the way and in full swing for the entire month of August (and some more).

Here’s the schedule

Photos up till now:

Brutal polka

Klemen Mauhler stand-up comedy performance

Jani Kovačič and Slovenia united

There is and will of course be more in the gallery as the month and the festival go on.

Most links I find interesting end up in my Google reader shared items feed but this one was special. I took the Nerve.com design quiz and this was my result:

You got 12 out of 20 correct.
You’re a Tasteful Trend Watcher. You’ve got a copy of Metropolis magazine on your Design Within Reach coffee table, a MacBook on your Ralph Lauren four-post bed and an area rug from the high-end of Target. Your clothes are vintage, or from Perry Ellis, Ben Sherman, Diesel or Betsy Johnson. You’re thinking of trading in your Mini Cooper for something equally green. You’ve been saving up for an iPhone, and wondering if you’re too old to pull off a Von Dutch cap. You’re not too old, my friend — wear it with those patterned Chucks high-tops.

As some might know… nothing in this could be further from the truth. It’s just painfully off base… iPhone, MacBook??!! Seriously…they’ve got to be kidding. I wonder what it would say if I got something like 18 correct?! ;)