Background:
Locally referred to as "Paddy's Wigwam", Liverpool's Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral began its life in May 1967 after 4 and a bit years of construction, with the first foundations laid in October 1962. The estimated cost of construction was initially £3M, however, this later grew to a whopping £27M following architectural design changes, and the knock-on effects WW2 had on the area.
Standing at 84m tall and 51m wide, this contemporarily designed building makes up a significant part of Liverpool's low-lying skyline and is used frequently by those of the catholic faith to practice their religion.
Under construction, 1965
"Come on lads, let's get on with it"
I'd had in the diary that I'd be up to visit @Bigjobs & @Paradox come the new year, and so as planned, I along with @James Cross who I was pleased to have join me made the journey up to the scouse territory of Northern England to do just that.
Well...not just that, as we had an objective in mind, that being to get a closer look at Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral, despite the amber weather warning...
Saturday night rolled around, and staying true to our intentions in light of the sleet and snow along with some mental perseverance, we made our way to the general vicinity of the Cathedral to see if many people were floating around or not, which @Conrad would also join us for.
I've really got to hand it to @Bigjobs for making this possible and exercising his skill set with ropes, as I'm about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it boils down to the technicalities of rigging a system safely, if at all.
The harsh weather conditions would later turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as for the entirety of the time we were on the ground making a go of catapulting the fishing line over the lower roof, not a single soul cottoned onto us. Could only imagine any sane person would've been staying toasty inside somewhere...
Initially, I took it upon myself to catapult the line over, but after 3 failed attempts and almost cracking a window with the bolt attached to the end of it, I handed it over to @Conrad who'd go on to have the perfect aim and pinged the line over first time round.
Now the hard bit was done, the fishing line was then reeled back over the roof with a rope attached to it, where @Bigjobs would then go on to perform some subjectively intricate rigging techniques that later saw us able to ascend to the first roof.
Despite the distance from ground level to the first roof not being particularly far, this was by far one of the most arduous of ascents I've done due to the weather making it progressively difficult to feel my hands and operate the progress capture with as much grip as I'd hoped, on top my now heavily wet clothes drenched by the sleet and snow.
We worked out it had taken us the best part of 3hrs to get this far, but of course, we'd factored in the inevitably convoluted ascent so time was still in our favour.
What we didn't factor in however was that we'd end up on the wrong roof, which didn't have an access ladder to the start of the sloped roof we were aiming for...
Fortunately, @Bigjobs used some intuition and sent me back to the motor to get the telescopic ladder and caving ladder which I sent up the rope before harnessing myself in.
With all 4 of us now finally up, along with the apt equipment to aid us in the second leg of the plan, we didn't waste any time.
@Conrad and @Bigjobs would then lean against the wall going to the next level with their arms over each other making a human climbing frame for me so I could haul myself over and set up the ladder for everyone else...
Phone shot from @Conrad
Our hands were now completely numb from our frosty gloves, but alas, one by one up the ladders we went and onto the start of the sloped roof, clipping into the maintenance worker's wire cable for safety as we negotiated our way around the slanted pillars along to the roof which has the staircase leading to the glass top.
Finally, we'd reached the last push, and were met by the most icey staircase I'd ever seen. As mentioned earlier, with gloves now acting as more of a hindrance than an aid I decided to take them off. The only trouble now is it made the bannister extremely harsh to grip, although I didn't fancy my chances of bolting it up there without at least 4 points of contact at all times, so the bullet was bitten.
Our original plan from here was to go into the glass top using the door at the top of the staircase, then up in the interior ladders and onto the peak of the cathedral, which is the same method a few others had used years ago.
Unfortunately, it soon became obvious a lock had since been fitted to the door we needed... (you can imagine some of the words that were exchanged given how frozen and soaked we were by that point)
Had we wanted to press on, it would've entailed descending back to the ground, collecting additional kit from the motor and then re-rigging our way back up again, which was an idea not one of us was keen on considering the state we were all in at that point.
"Looks like you'll have to get your photos from here boys, I'll go set up the rope for the descent," said @Bigjobs, and with that, we agreed.
I didn't take any more photos from here onwards, mainly because I'd lost the ability to use my phone safely without dropping it. But to cut to the chase, @Bigjobs was swift with setting up the gear for the descent to ground level, which took just a fraction of the time it did for the mission up.
One at a time, we were belayed back to base, and following an even swifter un-rigging we were soon back in the motor with the heater on full whack.
All in all, this was a 5-hour round trip, and despite the views not being overly photogenic or reaching the top as we set out to do, I do feel as if the challenge of the experience was well worth doing and has hopefully made for a half-intriguing read.
Until next time ~
Locally referred to as "Paddy's Wigwam", Liverpool's Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral began its life in May 1967 after 4 and a bit years of construction, with the first foundations laid in October 1962. The estimated cost of construction was initially £3M, however, this later grew to a whopping £27M following architectural design changes, and the knock-on effects WW2 had on the area.
Standing at 84m tall and 51m wide, this contemporarily designed building makes up a significant part of Liverpool's low-lying skyline and is used frequently by those of the catholic faith to practice their religion.
Under construction, 1965
"Come on lads, let's get on with it"
I'd had in the diary that I'd be up to visit @Bigjobs & @Paradox come the new year, and so as planned, I along with @James Cross who I was pleased to have join me made the journey up to the scouse territory of Northern England to do just that.
Well...not just that, as we had an objective in mind, that being to get a closer look at Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral, despite the amber weather warning...
Saturday night rolled around, and staying true to our intentions in light of the sleet and snow along with some mental perseverance, we made our way to the general vicinity of the Cathedral to see if many people were floating around or not, which @Conrad would also join us for.
I've really got to hand it to @Bigjobs for making this possible and exercising his skill set with ropes, as I'm about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it boils down to the technicalities of rigging a system safely, if at all.
The harsh weather conditions would later turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as for the entirety of the time we were on the ground making a go of catapulting the fishing line over the lower roof, not a single soul cottoned onto us. Could only imagine any sane person would've been staying toasty inside somewhere...
Initially, I took it upon myself to catapult the line over, but after 3 failed attempts and almost cracking a window with the bolt attached to the end of it, I handed it over to @Conrad who'd go on to have the perfect aim and pinged the line over first time round.
Now the hard bit was done, the fishing line was then reeled back over the roof with a rope attached to it, where @Bigjobs would then go on to perform some subjectively intricate rigging techniques that later saw us able to ascend to the first roof.
Despite the distance from ground level to the first roof not being particularly far, this was by far one of the most arduous of ascents I've done due to the weather making it progressively difficult to feel my hands and operate the progress capture with as much grip as I'd hoped, on top my now heavily wet clothes drenched by the sleet and snow.
We worked out it had taken us the best part of 3hrs to get this far, but of course, we'd factored in the inevitably convoluted ascent so time was still in our favour.
What we didn't factor in however was that we'd end up on the wrong roof, which didn't have an access ladder to the start of the sloped roof we were aiming for...
Fortunately, @Bigjobs used some intuition and sent me back to the motor to get the telescopic ladder and caving ladder which I sent up the rope before harnessing myself in.
With all 4 of us now finally up, along with the apt equipment to aid us in the second leg of the plan, we didn't waste any time.
@Conrad and @Bigjobs would then lean against the wall going to the next level with their arms over each other making a human climbing frame for me so I could haul myself over and set up the ladder for everyone else...
Phone shot from @Conrad
Our hands were now completely numb from our frosty gloves, but alas, one by one up the ladders we went and onto the start of the sloped roof, clipping into the maintenance worker's wire cable for safety as we negotiated our way around the slanted pillars along to the roof which has the staircase leading to the glass top.
Finally, we'd reached the last push, and were met by the most icey staircase I'd ever seen. As mentioned earlier, with gloves now acting as more of a hindrance than an aid I decided to take them off. The only trouble now is it made the bannister extremely harsh to grip, although I didn't fancy my chances of bolting it up there without at least 4 points of contact at all times, so the bullet was bitten.
Our original plan from here was to go into the glass top using the door at the top of the staircase, then up in the interior ladders and onto the peak of the cathedral, which is the same method a few others had used years ago.
Unfortunately, it soon became obvious a lock had since been fitted to the door we needed... (you can imagine some of the words that were exchanged given how frozen and soaked we were by that point)
Had we wanted to press on, it would've entailed descending back to the ground, collecting additional kit from the motor and then re-rigging our way back up again, which was an idea not one of us was keen on considering the state we were all in at that point.
"Looks like you'll have to get your photos from here boys, I'll go set up the rope for the descent," said @Bigjobs, and with that, we agreed.
I didn't take any more photos from here onwards, mainly because I'd lost the ability to use my phone safely without dropping it. But to cut to the chase, @Bigjobs was swift with setting up the gear for the descent to ground level, which took just a fraction of the time it did for the mission up.
One at a time, we were belayed back to base, and following an even swifter un-rigging we were soon back in the motor with the heater on full whack.
All in all, this was a 5-hour round trip, and despite the views not being overly photogenic or reaching the top as we set out to do, I do feel as if the challenge of the experience was well worth doing and has hopefully made for a half-intriguing read.
Until next time ~
