baleanoptera | The Night Climbers of Cambridge

A secret society of university students who, during the 1930’s, spend their nights climbing the old buildings of Cambridge? It sounds like a wonderful, inventive novel doesn’t it. Except it’s true.

There was such a secret society, and they called themselves The Night Climbers of Cambridge. They even wrote a book about the exploits – and (which is the part I love the most) took pictures of the nightly climbs.

Market Fountain

Caius to the Senate House

The book was originally published in 1937, written under the pseudonym of Whipplesnaith, and ever since its publication it has been something of a cult phenomenon. In October last year an anniversary edition of the book, titled The Night Climbers of Cambridge, was published by Oleander press.

Fitz Museum Lion Chimney

But the book is also available on the net here. It’s a strange book which mixes literary quotes, philosophy and more practical climbing advice. Personally I’m particularly fond of the drainpipe climbing technique and the escape map.

Map of the Escape

Perpetrators

For a climber is as a man standing on the edge of an abyss. The chance of falling over or of the ground crumbling beneath his feet is negligible, yet his very closeness to the edge makes him think. He cannot but visualize what would happen if he stepped forward, and realizes with a shock of what very small significance it would be. The sun would still be shining, and the waterfall would still be roaring below. And suddenly he realizes, perhaps far the first time in his life, what a friendly fellow the sun is, what vividness there is in the green around him.

There is a kind of fear which is very closely akin to love, and this is the fear which the climber enjoys. It is, to use a contradictory term, a brave fear; a fear which announces its presence, perhaps very loudly, but raises no insuperable barrier to achievement. The climber enjoys being frightened, because he knows that fear is no impediment.
- From The Night Climbers of Cambridge

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What can I say - I'm utterly fascinated.

For those of you who read Swedish there is an excellent article about the Night Climbers here, written Lars Burman, a professor in Literature at Uppsala University.