DISCLAIMER: Buildering, i.e. climbing buildings, is stupid dangerous. Buildering always results in serious injury and horrible death. Buildering is illegal. You will be caught, charged with trespassing, and spend years in jail. All media contained within this guidebook is fictional. It is a fictional account of fictional characters doing fictional things. All photos have been doctored to give the appearance of buildering. They are not real. This guidebook is not intended to promote or legitimize the illicit activities of criminals. Buildering.net and the University of North Carolina at Asheville promote climbing at Climbmax Climbing Center (www.climbmaxnc.com), walking on sidewalks, and good dental hygiene.

All content and photos ©2009 Chris Brown/Highexposures.com.

DISCLAIMER

Buildering, i.e. climbing buildings, is stupid dangerous. Buildering always results in serious injury and horrible death. Buildering is illegal. You will be caught, charged with trespassing, and spend years in jail. All media contained within this guidebook is fictional. It is a fictional account of fictional characters doing fictional things. All photos have been doctored to give the appearance of buildering. They are not real. This guidebook is not intended to promote or legitimize the illicit activities of criminals. Buildering.net and highexposures.com promote climbing at Vertical Ventures, walking on sidewalks, and good dental hygiene.

ETHICS

One of the greatest things about buildering is that you make your own rules. Your actions rarely impact others around you. Remember this whole buildering thing is fictional, let's not give the authorities any real evidence of our misdeeds. Keep a low-key and heads-up presence about you when you're engaging in buildering antics. Climbing shoes, crash pads and huge chalk marks are not exactly low-key. Don't be stupid.

TAMPA BAY AREA BUILDERING

There are 5 main areas of development in the Bay Area: USF's Tampa campus, Downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg, Fort Desoto and Egmont Key. The highest concentration of quality problems is at Fort Desoto.

Fort Desoto

Take I-275 to The Pinellas Bayway(toll road) and head west. Turn left at FL-679 (to Fort Desoto). Enter the park ($.35) and turn right at the T intersection. Drive about 1 mile following signs for the Historic Fort. The climbing gets blasted by the sun until late afternoon.

Egmont Key

Use the directions to Fort Desoto. Launch your water vessel from near the fishing pier and head southwest aiming for the southern tip of Egmont Key making sure to stay well clear of the giant freighters and cruise ships using the channel. Round the southern point and continue another half mile or so to the boulders. If you want sandy landings, time your arrival to coincide with a low tide. Plan on a 2 hour paddle each way.

St. Petersburg

This guide refers to the sculpture in Vinoy Park. St Pete buildering is in its infancy and many options exist downtown for the exploratory soul.

Downtown Tampa

Downtown Tampa has a large number of quality problems, but they're a bit spread out. A bike would be perfect for linking them all together. The University of Tampa is a good starting point.

USF Tampa Campus

This campus is a literal treasure trove of buildering and parkour potential. Not to be missed is the infamous Supercrack of Tampa aka Bullcrack - a 5 story trad line up a splitter hand crack. USF.

Buildering routes in Woodstock Ontario.

DISCLAIMER

Buildering, i.e. climbing buildings, is stupid dangerous. Buildering always results in serious injury and horrible death. Buildering is illegal. You will be caught, charged with trespassing, and spend years in jail. All media contained within this guidebook is fictional. It is a fictional account of fictional characters doing fictional things. All photos have been doctored to give the appearance of buildering. They are not real. This guidebook is not intended to promote or legitimize the illicit activities of criminals. Buildering.net promotes climbing in gyms, walking on sidewalks, and good dental hygiene.

HISTORY

In 1968 Dick Culbert, a prolific Coastal Mountain Range mountaineer and member of the UBC Varsity Outdoor Club, compiled a two volume buildering guidebook titled A Cragrat's Guide to the UBC Campus.

The volumes consisted of typewritten pages with taped in black and white photographs. Volume I covered routes to the west of Main Mall Road, and volume II covered routes to the east. For years the books were readily viewable at the VOC clubroom library, however at some point in the late '90s someone walked away with volume I.

Forty years after Cragrat's was constructed, buildering.net is releasing volume III, a new completely digital version. Yes it lacks the tactile response of a book, but it has a lot of advantages as well: permanence, exposure, expandability, and it's free. When portable internet devices like the iPhone are commonplace, climbers will be able to carry this guide in their pocket.

Since 1968 buildings have come and gone, yet there still remain a number of the classic routes. Whenever possible I reference the original volume II photographs and route descriptions.

These classic routes were climbed by mountaineers. As such, they tend to be bold summit-by-any-means-necessary adventures. Many of the newer routes are more bouldering-oriented and technical in nature. Both have their merits.

ETHICS

One of the greatest things about buildering is that you make your own rules. Your actions rarely impact others around you. That said, let's keep things that way. Leave no trace. Save your professions of love and Grad 2004 pride for roadside boulders. Remember this whole buildering thing is fictional, let's not give the authorities any real evidence of our misdeeds. Yes chalk is evidence, and generally unnecessary.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions about climbing shoes. Unless otherwise noted, route descriptions and ratings assume you are wearing sneakers or those nifty sticky rubber approach shoes. In my opinion climbing shoes make the routes a little too easy, make landings and running from cops a little too hard, and generally are not in the spirit of the sport. The 1960s climbers wore hiking boots -- with our arsenal of modern day climbing techniques we should be wearing roller skates and boxing gloves.

Ard on the roof of Koerner Library.

THANK YOUS

- Owen Loy for programming the Google Maps module. Check out his blog.
- Oker Chen for providing a portion of the route photos (all the good ones). Check out his Flickr photostream.
- The pioneers: Dick Culbert, T. Auger, M. Wisnicki, M. Ablitt, G. Headley, J. Whittaker, G. Woodsworth, A. Ellis, M. Lasserre, A. Purdey, B. McKnight, M. Warr, H. Bruce, R. Scott, E. Lance, B. Howard, D. Harris, F. Baumann, R. Price, D. Schmail, J. Rietsma, J. Byers, L. Watson, T. Stevens, A. Fraser, S. Brummel, S. White, N. Humphrey, C. McNeill, and D. Gibson.
- To the numerous builderers I've had the pleasure of adventuring with over the years. The list is too big, I'd inevitably miss some, and others are still in school and probably prefer to go nameless. You know who you are, the authorities don't, lets keep it that way!

-Ard