Rooftopper on top of Frankfurts Kaiserdom

Rooftopping, sometimes called roofing (or climbing), refers to the (typically illegal) unsecured ascent of

roof A roof (: roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempera ...

tops, skyscrapers, towers, cranes, antennas, smokestacks, or other tall structures. Rooftoppers usually take photos or videos of their climbs. The practice of scaling skyscrapers often results in security crackdowns and arrests. Many people have died or been injured when falling while rooftopping.

Activity

Rooftopping is chiefly an undertaking of younger people. Rooftoppers clandestinely access off-limits staircases, roof hatches, ladders, etc., and it incorporates some aspects of

bouldering Bouldering is a form of rock climbing that is performed on small rock formations or Climbing wall, artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or Climbing harness, harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers ...

free solo climbing Free solo climbing, or free soloing, is a form of rock climbing where the climber (or ''free soloist'') climbs Solo climbing, solo (or alone) without Climbing rope, ropes or other Rock climbing equipment#Protection devices, protective equipmen ...

. It is an offshoot of urban exploring, but is not universally condoned among urban explorers and is considered a stunt due to its illegality and high risk of fatal injuries. Rooftoppers usually take photos or videos and panoramic photographs—either a selfie by themselves or with the help of a crew of assistants or accomplices, present on the climb or filming from a distance. Rooftoppers often use

helmet camera A helmet camera, otherwise known as a micro video camera, is an action camera, usually a closed-circuit television camera, attached to a helmet allowing someone to make a visual record from their point of view ( POV), while keeping their hands and ...

s for videos. Some also use

quadcopter A quadcopter, also called quadrocopter, or quadrotor is a type of helicopter or multicopter that has four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity ...

drones for exploration and recording. Because it is often practised in the pursuit of making viral-ready videos or photos, it tends to result in heightened security and greater restriction against access to desirable exploration venues.

Popularity

In one report presented to

American Educational Research Association The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and ...

in 1995 participants were suggested as thrill seekers who enjoy "high levels of stimulation and complexity of thinking," although other theories explaining their motivation exist. There was a rooftopping "craze" in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

around 2017.

Notable rooftoppers

* Ally Law, English YouTuber who makes rooftopping videos *

Mustang Wanted Pavlo Gennadiyovich Ushivets (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Павло Геннадійович Ушивець born 21 January 1987), better known as Mustang Wanted, is a Ukrainian urban climbing, urban climber and Internet celebrity. He is know ...

, real name Pavlo Ushivets, a Ukrainian rooftopper who has performed climbs and stunts around the world. In August 2014, during the

War in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

, he climbed the spire of

Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is one of seven Stalinist skyscrapers laid down in September 1947 and completed in 1952, designed by Dmitry Chechulin (then Chief Architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky. The main tower has 32 levels (incl ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia and painted the yellow star on the top of the spire in blue to symbolize the colors of the

Ukrainian flag The national flag of Ukraine (, ) consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow. The blue and yellow bicolor flag was first seen during the 1848 Spring of Nations in Lemberg (Lviv), the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lo ...

. He was later prosecuted in absentia in Russia for

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...

, and also awarded in Ukraine. * Angela Nikolau, a Russian rooftopper and model. * Ivan Beerkus, a Russian rooftopper * Kirill Oreshkin, the Moscow-based "Russian Spiderman"; has published pictures of himself in the midst of dangerous stunts on some of Russia's tallest buildings. Oreshkin started scaling buildings as a hobby in 2008. Videos of his ascents have been posted on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. * Vitaliy Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov, YouTube rooftoppers. * Vic Invades, New York urban explorer * Tom Ryaboi, a Canadian photographer who has been credited as a pioneer in the community. His photo "I'll Make You Famous" in 2011 was the first Rooftopping image to go viral. * Justin Casquejo is an American who has scaled several skyscrapers in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York City, as well as a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

in his hometown of

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located on the Hudson Waterfront and Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's po ...

. *

Alain Robert Alain Robert (; born Robert Alain Philippe; 7 August 1962) is a French rock climber and urban climber. Nicknamed "the French Spider-Man" or "the Human Spider", Robert carries out free solo climbs of skyscrapers using no climbing equipment ex ...

is a French climber nicknamed "the French

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

" who has free-climbed numerous skyscrapers around the world.

Deaths

* Wu Yongning, known as the Chinese Superman; died in 2017 while performing a rooftopping stunt. * Remi Lucidi aka Remi Enigma, a 30-year-old French daredevil and photographer known for climbing skyscrapers, fell to his death from the 68th floor of Tregunter Towers in Hong Kong in 2023.

References

{{reflist

External links