UKC

Well, I'll be honest, it's been boring at home, my wine rack is almost empty after these few weeks and I'm bored as I can't undertake my favourite hobby. I thought long and hard about this post, because, whilst what I'm asking is very easy for you guys, its slightly unconventional, but a perfect use of your art. Hey, I'll give you a laugh and just post it anyway, I'm prepared for the flack, I'll just ignore it, perhaps you can keep your reply under the radar and PM me ?

     Ok, what could it possibly be, what could I need the help of the climbers for ? well, I myself own a nice climbing harness, little else if I'm honest, I did a short climbing course and shat myself at the point they asked me to jump away from the wall !

     I'm pretty boring, to be truthful , I suffer from a bit of depression, but I absolutely live for a hobby called Urban Exploring, us guys are generally photographers and we aim to gain access into disused or derelict properties, factories, hospitals, asylums (a sadly dying favourite) and anything interesting, about our hobby they say " take only photographs, leave only footprints", we're trespassers sure, but nothing more, confession over.

     There's just something that stands in our way..... fences ! often with spikes on the top, and other aspects that are height related. we're not talking massive risk here, there's no real height involved in the majority of what stands before us, we effectively need a good 'leg up'. I have a couple of slings, and they've been of help on occasions, obviously they're non-adjustable, and often time is of the essence, to be honest I'm looking for a very very simple system which will enable us to ascend a length of rope, probably only of a height that you can actually stand there and attach it at the top.

     I've seen something called a 'Ropeman', I figured we could knott a carabiner in the top to secure it, clip a Ropeman in, a sling into that, and get an 'adjustable' leg up. That bit is easy, but then the next two questions :

1, obviously we've our weight in the sling connected to the ropeman, so we're stuck, do we just have another ropeman to pull on and take the weight off so we can move up ?

2, what's a Grigi ? it's a failsafe device that catches the rope if you fall ? (that's clever) I've heard of using a Grigi and a Ropeman, but what's the advantage, just that a Grigi will catch you and a Ropeman won't ?

3, if we're at the top, over the top and must decent the incredible height of 13'0", how do we then let ourselves down.

firstly, sorry this is a bit unconventional, hope you don't take offence

we're good law biding people and usually police ardently interested since trespassing is a civil offence.... and since the times we've been caught we've had big cameras and tripods, we've just been shown the closest exit

if we don't get over that fence, we don't get in, we don't get our photographs, and I'm looking for a safer wa rather than stuggling over spikes

please PM me, and help me with what components to buy, me and my mate will then find somewhere to practice

hope you can help, look forward to your PM replies

Paul

Buy a drone.

If the fence is that big it's a pretty obvious sign of you shouldn't be attempting to get over it.

Good

No photos for you then,

next

replies as expected so far, that's good, anyone that can genuinely help us, please PM

Paul

Have you checked out DMM's other catalogue?

No help but a thumbs up to urban exploration. I love old or abandoned buildings but you need a different kind of nerve for it. Only ever explored Cardross Seminary. 

A couple of ladders?

Sent you a message

Couple of roofs and abandoned buildings I've wanted to explore, never really got around to it. Not the best time for me to start, too many police around to ask questions.. good luck to you buddy.

We've been to St Josephs Seminary in Upholland a couple of times, one a few years ago, it was legendary because of it's super loud alarms and my god were they loud ! when you set them off you literally had to walk around with both fingers in your ears ! more recently the alarms were ripped out, and we just walked in trough a window, months later, bit spiked fences, and the issue at hand !

Sorry, you've lost me ?

only if they're small enough to secrete up my jacket ?

police don't care (ever)

How to climb a rope...  youtube.com/watch?v=p5g0Cq8X9g8&

DMM make a wide range of climbing gear. They also make a wide range of other ropework-related things under the "DMM professional" range. This is aimed at people who are climbing things for work, such as tree surgeons, or people dangling about construction sites.  He's suggesting that some of that equipment might be more useful than the rock climbing kit.

Have a look at etriers

You need about 10 of them.   Hook them together, put on your harness and clip on under the drones.   

I really meant this one:

https://helixtactical.com/

I've done a bit of URBEX in my time including some old mines. I think my best was a tower crane on the Tyneside Metro on the edge of the town moor when my brother and I, both active climbers at the time, got over the high hoarding into the site, climbed the jib and peed off the end. We were walking home from a night out in the toon and wearing suits, as people did in those days, so when we discovered greasy stains on my jacket the next day we had to nip to the dry cleaner before the parents found out. Nowadays I limit myself to looking at the pictures on 28dayslater and marvelling at the splendour of the Victorian architecture of our old hospitals and asylums.

Every Urbexer knows the rule about entry without damage (which is when it becomes breaking and entering, a criminal offence) but I would be reluctant to carry any item of specialised climbing kit for fear of being accused of "going equipped". It's much easier to say that you simply happened upon an open door or window and stepped inside for a look around and some photos.

Using the Ropeman in the way I think you're describing would mean that you've already got the rope attached to the top of the fence. How are you thinking of doing that?

Yes - you would use two such devices.

I don't think a Grigri will be helpful in your case. A Petzl shunt might be.

You could use the Ropeman in reverse to go down the rope on the descent side. The bit that would be tricky would be changing over from the climbing side to the descent.

Whatever you cook up, practice it all in a tree or similar before you start doing it in the dark on top of a spiky fence!

Interesting website, but how on earth is the guy in this photo attached, is he larks footed to a an extender without a krab on it, or something else, looks a bit weird ?

https://helixtactical.com/Products/Mountain

dont know - some sort of sewn loop at the end?

A caving ladder?

Strictly on the topic of "how do you climb a fence", and leaving aside why and where:

I think you're overthinking it and a ropeman (or two!) would be a very expensive method and not actually very quick or easy. I would have thought the easiest solution with the gear you have would be simply to tie some knots in the slings at regular intervals to use as a ladder. Try it somewhere first with a solid anchor, a safe landing and a friend to "spot" you (i.e. not to catch you - which might lead to them breaking their wrists - but to use their hands to give you a litte support whilst they can and to stop you landing on your head if you fall).

I can't help at all  but another thumbs up for a cool hobby! Where can we see your photos?  

You are overthinking this

To get to the top of the fence stand on your partner's shoulders and reach up. That should get you over fences higher than the incredible height of 13ft. You will have a partner to stand on since you should not be exploring alone.

When at top fix a short rope with knots on it for your partner to climb up hand over hand. 

To get down hang from the fence and drop. That drop will be 5 foot at most in a 13ft fence. Alternatively use the rope to help yourself down. 

Leave the rope in place hanging on the in side to aid a quick getaway

Even better than the above, seek experienced people to take you out and show you the ropes, as well as how to identify alarms and how not to set them off... 

If it’s just to get a bit of a “leg up” you could just use a couple of prussik loops with some carabiners and slings. Cheap and pretty easy. There’s plenty of videos on you tube of how to do this.  youtube.com/watch?v=WcUmdGIf21o&

For descending the rope on the way back it might be worth learning how to abseil. Practice on the ground walking backwards until you’re sure you’ve got it right.

Have fun, stay safe and ignore the detractors. You’re not doing anyone any harm whatsoever, and you’re probably not even breaking any laws. Well most of the time anyway.

Back when I was teenager we broke into a couple of warehouses and built a skatepark in there. People used to travel from all across the north east to go there. Police used to pop down quite often, they used just leave us be and let us get on with it. They could see we weren’t doing any harm and were just having fun.  

Just Google Urbex sites, there are about half a dozen, all full of stunning photos but the best known is 28dayslater.

Thread some 4-5 inch lengths of hosepipe onto your rope and then tie loops with overhand knots to isolate each one and make a series of rungs for hands and feet. 

A loop at one end to loop over the top of the fence.  If it's a wall, you need a 6 foot length of 2x2 wood with the rope attached to one end and a brick at the other.  Chuck the pole over the wall and pull the rope up- once the pole reaches the top you won't be able to pull it over, and will be able to climb your ladder.  To recover your pole, you need a length of cord attached to the brick end.

Chain link fence or similar- make two foot loops with cord that runs to about chest height and put another loop in each one for your hands.  Either fit a fifi hook to each of these or make a hook out of fencing wire or a big nail (it needs to be able to hold your weight without opening out.  Then just hook into the fence and climb it like a ladder

I'd just carry a bit of old carpet and throw that on the fence.  If it doesn't work you'll  feel a right prick.

Have you asked on 28? Some of them are actually quite friendly and will likely have some good ideas. Unfortunately i climb and am quite tall so can't offer any useful advice other than what's been mentioned above. Can you get under the fence? Ive seen the carpet trick work on palisades - turns out there was a damaged loose one, though, so we squeezed thru after that. Went down 'this is it' 

I’ve heard about that but never tried it - have you ? 

Start talking to Base jumpers, they are always trying to get into places all be it the high ones so they can jump. Again ethos of leave no trace so they can keep jumping the building/object. good place to start www.basejumper.com. No idea if they will help mainly because they wont want you burning any of there sites but you may get something. 

Good luck 

What - the brick and pole? Yes, it works.

Yes! 

It'll take you forever faffing with ropes and grigris or whatever, just use something like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metolius-8-Step-Ladder-Aider-Webbing/dp/B003ZYITQK - and extend it with a sling if you need an extra step.

I’m def going to give it a go - so gaffer tape the brick to the end then tie and tape the rope on to the other - rope with a set of knots down it.  Now to find a big wall that doesn’t have a big dog on the other side 

Why do you think prison walls have big rounded tops? 

I have a feeling the OP is a pretty experienced Urbexer looking for technical advice, not a newb.  When I was looking at some of this stuff in the beforetimes I came across this website which is an absolute goldmine of info, see sections 5.1 - 5.7 where he details how to deal with the six commonly encountered sorts of fences.

There's also a very good video demonstrating how to talk to the plod if they turn up (6.3).

http://www.urbanxphotography.co.uk/urbex-faqs

Sad how many Urbex locations seem to go through a cycle of:

Entered - yah!  Post my photos on the urbex sites for kudos.
Bunch of people go and site gets well known.
Arson, lost forever.

Then one day I found myself watching a video of someone in a residential home creaming themselves about how much stuff was there (essentially a cafeteria which hadn't had the stock removed so there were like, plates and everything, and apparently there was even a SWIMMING POOL WHOAH) and realised I had better things to do with my life.

Don't tell SteveX or get caught by him. You're likely to face an aggressive telling off, be publicly hounded and shamed on social media and then belittled for your own aggressive stance when there was nothing of the sort...

Or buy some bolt cutters and cut a hole in the fence. Who cares right? 

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Sounds like you fell for their cluckbait title. Was the lure of the big red arrow too much to resist? What were you expecting from a care home honestly? And a video!  Just my 2 cents worth but someone with their own website who writes that much about how to tresspass is doing it for one reason only. You get that a lot with 'urbex' unfortunately. 

Exploring (i feel daft writing that on a climbing forum) takes many forms. The best stuff isn't google indexed and for good reason.