A letter about Climbing at Princeton:

April 24, 2001

The picture of Cleveland Tower on the cover of the January 24, 2000, issue of PAW took me back to vour November 8, 2000, article about the mountain climbing community at Princeton.

The reference in that article to the "conquering" of various buildings, including the Graduate College by the early ’70s could have gone a bit deeper into its history. In his book The Delectable Mountains Douglas Busk, an experienced climber, relates how he came to Princeton, after three years at Oxford, on a Davison Scholarship either in the late ’20s or the early ’30s (it's not clear in his book). Apparently, scaling the Graduate College tower had already been worked out. He describes the ascent from the ground, only done on a rope, as follows:

"The building was bedight with every form of excrescence known to the stone-mason but even so the climb was not easy. The most critical pitch involved the sliding descent of a sloping rooflet and, just before one would have fallen into space over the edge, a leap upwards and across a four-foot gap to a safe handhold on a well placed gargoyle from which one dangled until a stout arm-pull landed one safely on a broad stone gutter."

I have never been able to learn what became of Douglas Busk. It would be interesting to know. The book was first published in 1946 by Hodder & Stoughton, Limited, London. Climbing at Princeton has a long history.  

Eugene M. Friedman
Spring Valley, N.Y.

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