The Night Climbers of Cambridge by Whipplesnaith

Author:Whipplesnaith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The Oleander Press
Published: 2010-11-04T04:30:00+00:00

North Face of Pembroke.

Get a knee on to the lower cross-bar, using half a pull-up and half a press-up on the bar above, avoiding the slippery dust with the fingers by gripping as close to the edge as possible. Your hair is now standing on end. With a forearm on the upper bar and a hand on the crest, things become easier, although the last bit is fairly difficult, the height and the stone pavement below making it unpleasant – or, in technical parlance, “interesting”.

Coming down again, we will walk in by the Porters’ Lodge, if it be before ten o’clock, and glance round the college from the inside.

There is a multitude of climbs in this, known indifferently as Lodge, or New Court. A number of ominous cracks run haphazard about the face of the building, but the stone is probably safe from a climbing point of view. A porter explained to us that the foundations of the building were inadequate; it is gradually subsiding, although quite new, and cracking as it goes. He also told us – informative fellow – that the name of the college was Pembroke, and Emmanuel was down the street. Because we asked for information, he took us for tourists. We thanked him.

It is not difficult to reach the roof in this court. We selected the north-east corner, and remember little of the climb except the last few feet. Here a broad ledge had to be surmounted without holds above until the bottom of the parapet could be reached. As it was in the corner this was easy, and the first climber, with his back to the corner, reached the roof in peace. The second climber, facing the corner, found himself looking at the ground through a crack in the ledge, reaching to the wall. It was a good tenth of an inch wide, just by his knee. With the memory of the Old Library still fresh in his mind, he wasted little time in joining his companion above. No photographs were taken of this climb.

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