Buildering, Street bouldering or Urban bouldering? What's going on?

Or outdoor climbing in the streets of cities and towns

Mountain climbing is a great way to connect with nature, to get to know yourself and to exercise at the same time. But until recently, a climber from the city had no choice but to plan a trip, load up the car or get on the train and head out into the countryside. Later, climbing only on artificial walls with plastic grips became widespread among climbers. The newest addition to the urban climber's repertoire is the so-called "buildering", "street bouldering" or "urban bouldering". And that's okay too. It's a very fulfilling sport with lots of health benefits, but it's very different from climbing real rock. Emotionally, climbing in the streets is more similar to exercise in climbing centers.

The term buildering itself symbolizes climbing buildings or more generally any architecture that was never built specifically for climbing. The term is a combination of the English words bouldering and building. And as we all suspect, buildering is almost identical in style to bouldering, only low climbing without ropes, often focused on shorter and harder routes without equipment. A climber's classic equipment is only sufficient for climber, the mage and the boudlermothers.

Is buildering legal?

Actually, we don't know ourselves. And information is almost impossible to find. As it is a less practiced form of climbing, there is no significant regulation yet. And if you are not climbing on private property, the eyes of the police are more likely to look at you with surprised incomprehension. It has already happened to us several times on the Pražská náplavka that the police passed by without a note and they hardly noticed us glued to the wall.

History

Although the popularity of buildering has been growing in recent years, it is not a new phenomenon. The sport of urban climbing seems to have its roots in the early 20th century. In 1900, Geoffrey Young published one of the first printed guides to climbing the buildings of Trinity College in Cambridge, England. This little book served as a guide for climbing some of the school's tallest buildings and provided guidance on which routes to take. Climbing buildings gradually spread around the world and gradually became part of colorful history. Modern action movies can be a perfect example. The film Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is famous for the scene where Tom Cruise climbs the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Buildering and its living legends

The English duo Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall certainly belong to the most famous names in buildering. Calling themselves the WideBoyz, this duo has already claimed more than one first ascent and currently holds the record for the longest buildering route. The Great Rift Road is an 800 meter long roof crack at the bottom of a motorway in Devon, England. The climb required 60 to 70 stalls where during four days and nights they slept suspended under the bridge with plugs in their ears. The ascent was made unpleasant by the omnipresent traffic noise overhead. The path replicates the entire freeway bridge, from where it leaves the ground to where it returns to ground level. The output appeared in the 16th volume of Reel Rock in early 2022.

Festivals

Although bouldering is a relatively young sport, it has attracted the attention of climbers from all over the world. The biggest fans come every year to the Italian town of Frasassi, where it is held climbing festival, whose main attraction is climbing the walls of this picturesque medieval town.

Urban bouldering in Prague

There are several important building areas in Prague. The largest sector is certainly the Prague embankment, where you will find 3 sections with more than 17 significant routes. It is also possible to climb the Libeň bridge, the Troj bridge or the Barikadník bridge.

We have already started mapping the floodplain and will bring you more routes than just the ones we have highlighted in this article. We will try to complete the complete mapping of the floodplain on both banks of the Vltava during the winter and make the area available on our website. Of course we will also publish .pdf version of the guide.