Report - Student Castle Crane – Manchester – April 2012

[sho]

Student Castle Crane – Manchester – April 2012

Visited with Morse

It was clear these people were specifically securing themselves from our types and they just seemed to have pretty much everything covered. Time and time again we returned, getting a better layout in our minds about where things were. To summarise, there were PIRs and cameras everywhere. One problem with over securing a site is that often security will become lazy and over confident in their over engineered systems but the main man here seemed virtually superhuman and was always onto us. Another problem is the harder you make it, the more we want it and like a rubix cube we toiled at length both as individuals and a collective, considering routes and strategies. For me, it eventually became more of a metaphor than a crane explore.

After quite a few goes and nearly a year of being chased, bollocked and generally told to fuck off from the surrounding area I got frustrated and bored of trying, it was easier to get a bus to the capital to get my heavy lattice fix. London heroes Dicky and Andrew B along with the heavily persistent Fishbrain, recently proved to me that it was just the mindset that made this seem impossible. We now had it worked out, it was just a case of being driven enough to set foot somewhere you’ve had this many fails. We had hoped that fortune would favour our bravery and with a bit of luck, Morse and I were finally able to make it.

Thanks for finally giving it up Manchester!

Sho
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[morse]

I was speaking to Morse straight after and he was on an incredible high

Still can't believe I finally made it up there.
There's not much I can add to Sho's write up really. I guess this final trip was not about the view or the climb. It was about finishing off something that I have been wanting to do for so long...
I tried to explain this feeling to some friends the morning after, but there was nothing i could really compare it to.

Only got a few pictures, spend most of the time just happily staring down at manchester

 

[tweek]

Very weird to see this crane finally come down having taunted the Manchester scene for 2 years. In the end, everyone who gave it the commitment it deserved got up the beast - for some as late as a fortnight before it's time on the Manc skyline came to a close.

For Gone and myself, it marked the end of our time in Manchester... and was a fitting way to close the show for both of us. In many ways I didn't deserve this one until the end - with a meagre 3 fails to my name, I ended up giving it one last push, and even then got rained off 3 nights in a row with Agour.

For the 4th attempt, Millhouse and Coyccoyc became available, and the former assured me in a text that 'Tonight shall be the night'.

With the rain miraculously halting for a solitary evening, we randomly (but fittingly) bumped into Gone skating in the street with Sui and OneByOne. 7-strong and hesitant, I was concerned, but somehow I knew we'd do it.

The look on Gone's face when he finally topped it with us (after what must have been 12 failed attempts) was that of a kid in a candy store - and was one that will stay with me for a very long time. Hats off to you, son.

The moral of the story = Persistence pays off.

Props to AndrewB, dicky21, Keitei and fishbrain for leading the way. And massive respect to sho and morse for taking the inspiration and doing it after so many fails shortly after them.

tweek
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