Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal Volume 6 Number 2

Mountaineering literature: The Roof Climber's Guide To Trinity

Cambridge: W. P. Spalding, 43 Trinity Street

"Though there's doorway behind thee and window before,
Go straight at the wall."
- Browning

A NEW field has been opened to climbers who have the good fortune to be resident members of the University of Cambridge. Sligachan or Wastdale Head at Easter and the Long Vacation in Switzerland or the Dolomites contented an earlier generation, but the aspirant for Alpine Club honours can now keep his hand - (and-foot) in throughout the flying terms as he "seeks new sensations on the artificial erections of man."

Traditions of ascents made (for decorative purposes) to the Gate Tower of St John's and other salient pinnacles of Cambridge scenery will be familiar to most Cambridge men. But these are isolated and perhaps mythical feats, and may be classed with such exploits as the ascent of Pic Canigou by Peter of Aragon in the sixteenth century.

Roof-climbing has now become a serious art, and in the pamphlet now before us the "stegophilist" will find a guide book so lucid and complete within its limited range as to compare with such classics as Ball's "Alpine Guide" and Haskett-Smith's "Climbing in the British Isles."

The author is a real sportsman, and up to all the rules of the game. The rope is mentioned as a necessary part of the equipment, but appears seldom to be employed. For steep roof descents the "gable method" - in which "the leader hangs from the top of the tilt by his hands, a second descending him and grasping his ankles, and the rest using the improvised ladder and assisting its subsequent descent" -seems to be that usually adopted.

Although the roof-climber escapes the dangers of the avalanche and crevasse, his course is not without its peculiar perils. Thus we read of "porter-swept gullies" and "the slumbering don," and note that the Library traverse is rendered exceptionally difficult by the "contiguity of the Vice-Masters rooms" while a certain "natural awe" has prevented a frequent crossing of the Master's Lodge.

For obvious reasons the excursions described are made under the shades of night. The author would, however, "view with regret any alteration in the College regulations tending to soften the conditions."

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The darkness indeed, he poetically observes, "surrounds the venture with an air of vague mystery, and lends a pleasing uncertainty to the handholds, a depth of impressive gloom to the courts and gutters...that could hardly be spared, while the recurring step of the night porter, heard when the climber hangs in literal suspense in some awkward lamp glare, rouses thrills of the chase unknown in legalised stegophilism."

No reference is made to climbing under winter conditions. We imagine that the "impossible slopes" of the hall roof when snow-covered might yield to judicious step-cutting, and spare the climber the somewhat ignominious expedient of lying in the gutter and pulling hand-over-hand up the coping.

The Guide confines itself to the ranges of Trinity College, and describes the four principal routes. Other special climbs are discussed, prominent among which is the great chimney climb of the Library, a truly sporting ascent of 31 feet, mostly "back and knee" work. A pamphlet by the same authors on "Roof-Climbing in General" is now in the press, and will no doubt be followed by a series of Climbers' Guides to the principal Colleges of the University of Cambridge. Our recollections of the principal features of Cambridge scenery, after an interval of more than twenty years, are somewhat hazy, but we imagine that the aiguilles of King's Chapel and the Pitt Press would afford some sporting climbs, while a traverse of the pediment of the Fitz-William should be full of interest.

We believe that one of the authors of this work is now resident in Edinburgh. We may therefore hope for the early appearance of a Climbers' Guide to the Scott Monument and other public buildings of this city.

A word of praise should be given in conclusion to the excellent plan and diagrams that illustrate the various routes; and also to the apt quotations, such as the lines which head this notice.

L. W. H.