Unmasking SPIDERMAN

It's 40 degrees outside on a quiet, clear night as sophomore Kirk Nathanson stands outside the Student Building. There's a hint of frost on the grass nearby, and he can almost see his breath as he exhales. He's only wearing cargo shorts and a long-sleeved fleece sweatshirt -- his lucky sweatshirt -- but he doesn't seem to notice the cold. He looks at the 30-foot stone wall. He's going to climb it.\nHe takes off his tennis shoes and socks and takes out a pair of $100 blue climbing shoes from his small red gym bag and puts them on.\nHe straps his digital camera to his belt loop and begins to climb.\nNathanson is buildering, a sport that involves climbing buildings without any support ropes. Despite its dangers and illegality, it is a growing trend among college-aged students.\nHe makes several attempts to climb, but he jumps down flat-footed to the pavement after making it nearly three feet from the ground.\n"I think we need another spot," he said.\nNathanson, whose friends nicknamed him "Spider-Man," began buildering with friends his junior year of high school in Bethesda, Md. His first attempt was a 30-story apartment complex still under construction, but Nathanson initially was apprehensive about going all the way to the top.\n"He was a bit scared, obviously," said Dennis Lim, one of Nathanson's fellow buildererers and a sophomore at Bowdoin College. "It was quite a bit windy, and we were pretty high up, but I think he'd say (climbing to the top) was worth it now."\nBoth said it was the best night of their lives.\n"You could see all of those people, Virginia, (Washington,) D.C. -- oh, man, it was just incredible," Nathanson said.\nNathanson said after that night, he and five of his friends regularly climbed buildings in the area. They first thought they were the only people climbing, but after looking at Web sites on buildering and urban exploration, they realized it was becoming a trend.\nAlain Robert, a French builderer, is perhaps the most daring and well-known of all urban explorers. Sporting a Spider-Man costume, he has climbed more than 30 buildings, including the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, and made headlines worldwide.\nNathanson also said he idolizes Yamakasi, a group of acrobatic builders who film their seemingly weightless climbs. He has a collection of their videos saved on his laptop.\n"(Climbing) turned from 'We're stupid and reckless' to 'We're in a select group of people that do really cool things,'" Nathanson said.\nBack at the Student Building, Nathanson has moved to another portion of the northeast end of the building near some windows and a large drainage pipe that runs the entire length of the wall.\nHe quickly climbs up the drainage pipe and reaches the roof about 30 feet above the ground. After taking a few photos, he tries to climb a little more onto the higher part of the building but stops.\nHe said a ping of reality hit him at that moment.\n"I really don't think about much when I'm climbing," said Nathanson, a political science major. "I'm just trying not to fall. But I realized trying to go farther up was dangerous. It was time to get down."\nNathanson and his friends haven't done any permanent damage to themselves or property nor been arrested for climbing, but they have had a couple of close calls. At home, police caught Nathanson, Lim and another friend climbing a preschool.\nHe said a few police officers stopped them, ran identification checks and made them call their parents to pick them up.\n"Here's a note to any future climbers," Nathanson said. "There's no easy way to tell your parents you might be getting arrested."\nThe officers let them go that night, but Nathanson said their parents grounded them for a week.\nAfter Nathanson gets down from the building, he takes a drink from his water bottle and tries another portion of the wall, this time with the aid of another drainage pipe. He's having difficulty finding support for one of his legs.\nHalfway up the wall, he reaches his foot out to a window sill and stops and freezes in silence. He's spotted someone below.\nA student passes about 20 feet from where Nathanson is climbing. He's wrapped up in a conversation on his cell phone, so he doesn't take any notice of Nathanson.\n"People don't look up," Nathanson said later. "That's the best thing about climbing. People never look up."\nAfter the passerby is out of sight, Nathanson continues climbing but slides down the drainage pipe soon after, scraping his knuckles against the rough wall on the way down.\n"I'm killing my hands," he said. "I need a break. I didn't like how my leg flailed out like that."\nNathanson has climbed the Student Building, Maxwell Hall, Kirkwood Hall, Lindley Hall and Wylie Hall. Each building has similar architecture — "uncarved stones, fire escapes, drain pipes and such to use as hand holds" — which appeals to Nathanson when he looks for buildings to climb.\nAlthough he climbs regularly, he's never been caught climbing any building on campus.\nChuck Sheppard, associate director of the physical plant at IU, said the physical plant doesn't have guidelines for its night-shift employees to report suspicious activity but assumes his employees would call the IU Police Department.\nJerry Minger, lieutenant officer for the IUPD, said he was unfamiliar with buildering, but a person climbing university property would be asked to stop immediately. On a second offense within one year, the violator would be arrested.\n"(Buildering) would be a dangerous issue that involves the liability of the University," Minger said. "If (builderers) wanted to do that, then they'd need to find someone who owns property and gives them permission." \nLarry Stephens, director of risk management at IU, said a student could request to make buildering an activity at IU but sees little hope in its success.\n"I can tell you with 99 percent certainty that we would turn that request down," Stephens said. "It's just too risky."\nBut Nathanson said potential risks are what make buildering so enjoyable.\n"I can get exercise at the gym, and I can climb at a climbing facility," Nathanson said. "But the fact that I could get arrested or I could die, that's the fun part."\nNathanson walks next door from the Student Building to Maxwell Hall, another building he's climbed before. He's never reached the top of Maxwell, though.\nHe walks to a courtyard near the center of the building, where he makes a few attempts to climb the wall. After getting about 10 feet up, he falls, slamming his face and body onto the ground. He stands up, checks for lost teeth and shakes out his arms. With only a few scrapes on his wrists, fingers and knees, he sits down and announces the climb has ended.\nNathanson said he hopes to climb a national monument someday, or at least "something that would almost definitely get me arrested," he said.\nAlthough he enjoys buildering with other people, he said he cautions prospective climbers that buildering is a serious sport with serious consequences.\n"Really, I would love to see more climbers," Nathanson said. "But please, don't die." \n-- Contact Business Editor Lori Snow at losnow@indiana.edu.