Virgil and Hal, post climb ---------- virgil   scott ---------- by: ardarvin

In the summer of 2003, while backpacking through London in search of things to climb, I came across a 22 story residential building named Parson’s House. Parson’s House is any builderers architectural fantasy: 60 meters of 5.4 climbing, easily protectable, with minimal bust factor. So after posting photos of the climb on buildering.net, I wasn’t at all surprised to receive an email from a couple London based builderers named Virgil and Hal wanting to know the location of the building. A couple days after divulging the information, I received the following email from Virgil:

“Last night I walked over Parson’s House for a little reconnaissance. I tried grabbing the girders to see how it would feel, and after making a few moves, I realized that I was quite high off the ground. From there I figured that I might as well just climb it.

About halfway up I stopped to take a photo on my camera phone, but it didn’t really turn out. As I reached the top I was greeted by a flat full of people that were having a party. They offered me a drink but I declined.

I noticed a small door opposite to where I had topped out, which led to the lift. On the way down, the lift stopped a couple of times to let others enter. I just stood there, out of breath and shaking from the excitement. They must’ve thought I was high or something. It was one hell of a thrill”

So I must admit, after reading about your account about climbing Parson’s House without any protection, I’m inclined to think that you probably have a few screws loose.

Well looking back I suppose it probably wasn’t the greatest idea, but I didn’t really think about it at the time.

What is your climbing background?

Well it was my first time climbing anything that big, previously I'd climbed only a few small problems with a cushion to fall onto.

I used to rock-climb when I was 12 or 13, for about 6 months. It wasn’t until last October that I started climbing again, through the outdoor club here at the university.

What men dare do in the dead of night.

So you know how to lead climb, set anchors, and the like?

Yes. Actually, Hal and I recently returned to Parson’s house for a roped climb of the building.

We set out at around 3am, but didn’t get to the building until around 4:30am. By this time it was already starting to get light out. About one third of the way up we suddenly became aware that it's pretty much impossible to climb quietly with ropes and protection.