One of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done is jump out of a plane from 15,000 feet (4572m). Even with that experience under my belt, I’m not sure if I’d have the guts to do it again and it certainly hasn’t given me the fortitude to scale a 320m-tall building, complete with a snow-covered crane at the top.
Yet, that’s what Russian “roof climber” Vitaliy Raskalov and his four mates did last year, when they took on the Mercury City Tower, the tallest building in Europe. Getting up 75 storeys of stairs isn’t that amazing a feat — though kudos to them for having the endurance — it’s the bit at the end where they mount the crane at that top that’ll induce a crazy bout of vertigo in even the strongest of stomachs.
According to Raskalov, there’s “no legal way” of getting inside the structure, thanks to guards, security cameras and, of course, an “anthill of Turkish construction workers”, the world’s most elite protectors of unfinished skyscrapers.
There’s a neat introduction explaining how the group gets into the tower, but you’ll need to turn on captions unless you speak fluent Russian. If you just want to evacuate your body in sheer terror as Vitaliy ascends the jib of the icy crane, fast forward to around the five-minute mark.
[YouTube, via The Awesomer]