Roof and tunnel hacking is the unauthorized
(generally prohibited and often illegal) exploration of roof and
utility tunnel spaces.
The term carries a
strong collegiate connotation, stemming from its use at MIT
, where the
practice has a long history (see vadding). It is a form of
urban exploration.
Some participants use
it as a means of carrying out collegiate
pranks, by hanging banners from high places or, in one notable
example from MIT, placing a life-size model police car on top of a
university building. Others are interested in exploring
inaccessible and seldom-seen places; that such exploration is
unauthorized is often part of the thrill. Roofers, in particular,
may be interested in the skyline views from the highest points on a
campus.
Vadding
Vadding is a verb which has become synonymous with
urban exploration.
The word comes from
MIT
where, for a time in the late 1970s, some of the
student population was addicted to a computer game called ADVENT. In an attempt to hide
the game from system administrators who would delete it if found,
the game file was renamed ADV. As the system administrators became
aware of this, the filename was changed again, this time to the
permutation VAD. The verb
vad appeared, meaning to play
the game. Likewise,
vadders were people who spent a lot of
time playing the game.
Thus, vadding and vadders began to refer to people who undertook
actions in real life similar to those in the game. Since ADVENT was
all about exploring underground tunnels, the MIT sport of roof and
tunnel hacking became known as vadding.
Today, the word vadding is rarely used at MIT (usually only by
old-timers) and roof and tunnel hacking has returned as the
preferred descriptive term. Those who participate in it generally
refer to it simply as "hacking".
Roof hacking
Most buildings at American universities have flat roofs (pitched
roofs are impractical for roof hacking). Entry points, such as
trapdoors, exterior ladders, and elevators to penthouses that open
onto roofs, are usually tightly secured. Roofers bypass locks (by
lock picking or other methods) or use
unsecured entry points to gain access to roofs. Once there,
explorers may take photographs or enjoy the view; pranksters may
hang banners, plant fake police cars, or execute other sorts of
mischief.
Tunnel hacking
Some universities have
utility
tunnels to carry
steam (central steam
heating being more efficient than installing a boiler in every
building) and other utilities. Utility tunnels are usually designed
for infrequent access for maintenance and the installation of new
utilities, so they tend to be small and often cramped. Sometimes,
utilities are routed through much larger pedestrian access tunnels
(MIT has a number of such tunnels, reducing the need for large
networks of steam tunnels; for this reason, there is only one
traditional steam tunnel at MIT, built before many buildings were
connected).
Tunnels range from cold, damp, and muddy to unbearably hot
(especially during cold weather). Some are large enough to allow a
person to walk freely; others are low-ceilinged, forcing explorers
to stoop, bend their knees, or even crawl. Even large tunnels may
have points where criscrossing pipes force an explorer to crawl
under or climb over a pipe — a highly dangerous activity,
especially when the pipe contains scalding high-pressure steam (and
may not be particularly well-insulated, or may have weakened over
the years since installation).
Tunnels also tend to be loud — pipes clank, machinery whirs and
hums. The background noise may prevent an explorer from hearing
another person in the tunnel — who might be a fellow explorer, a
police officer, or a homeless person sheltering there. Tunnels may
be well-lit or pitch-dark, and the same tunnel may have sections of
both.
Tunnel access points tend to be in (locked) mechanical rooms where
steam pipes and other utilities enter a building, and through
manholes. As with roofs, explorers bypass
locks (or look for unlocked doors) to enter mechanical rooms and
the connected tunnels. Some adventurers may open manholes from
above (with crowbars or specialized manhole-opening hooks) — a
practice with risk.
Some tunnelers may make maps of their campuses; an internet search
will turn up a handful of these.
Shafting
Buildings may have
maintenance
shafts for passage of
pipe and
ducts between floors. Climbing these shafts is
known as shafting. The practice is similar to
buildering, which is done on the outsides of
buildings.
Regular use of a shaft can wear down insulation and cause other
problems. To fix these problems, hackers sometimes take special
trips into the shafts to correct any problems with
duct tape or other equipment.
A dangerous variant of shafting involves entering
elevator shafts, either to ride on the
outside of the elevators, or to explore the shaft itself. This
activity is sometimes called
elevator
surfing.
Dangers
Legal dangers
Universities generally prohibit roof and tunnel hacking, either by
explicit policies or blanket rules against entry into non-public
utility spaces. The reasoning behind these policies generally stems
from concern for university infrastructure and concern for
students. Consequences vary from university to university; those
caught may be warned, fined, officially reprimanded, suspended, or
expelled. Depending on the circumstances, tunnelers and roofers may
be charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, or other
criminal charges.
MIT, once a vanguard of roof and tunnel hacking (
books have
been published on hacks and hacking at MIT), has been cracking down
on the activity. In October 2006, three students were caught
hacking near a crawl space in the MIT Faculty Club, arrested by the
MIT police, and later charged with
trespassing,
breaking and entering with the intent
to commit a felony. The charges raised an outcry among students and
alumni who believed that MIT ought to have continued its history of
handling hacking-related incidents internally. Charges against
those students were eventually dropped. In June 2008, another
graduate student was arrested and faced charges of
breaking and entering with intent to
commit a felony and possession of
burglarious instruments after being
caught after-hours in a caged room in a research building's
basement. However, both of these incidents could be considered
special cases, as they involved buildings with particularly
expensive or dangerous facilities. Not all off-limits areas are
treated equally, and hackers can generally expect at least their
first two surprise encounters with Campus Police to be kept as an
internal disciplinary matter.
Risks to university infrastructure
Utility tunnels carry everything from drinking water to power to
fiber-optic network cabling. Some roofs have radio broadcast or
radio reception equipment and weather-surveillance equipment,
damage to which can be costly.
Roofs and tunnels (especially tunnels) also may contain switches,
valves, and controls for utility systems that are not meant to be
publicly accessible; manipulation of any of these may cause
problems ranging from annoyances (an interruption of power to a
dormitory room) to disasters (a catastrophic steam
depressurization, a campus-wide electrical failure, a burst water
main).
Personal hazards
Roofs are dangerous; aside from the obvious risk of toppling over
the edge (especially at night, in inclement weather, or after
drinking) students could be injured by high-voltage cabling or by
microwave radiation from broadcast equipment. In addition,
laboratory buildings often vent hazardous gasses through smoke
stacks on the roof.
Tunnels can be extremely dangerous — superheated steam pipes are
not always completely insulated; when they are insulated, it is
occasionally with carcinogenic materials like
asbestos. Opening or damaging a steam valve or pipe
can be potentially deadly. Steam contains significantly more
thermal energy than boiling water,
and tends to dissipate that energy when it condenses on solid
objects such as skin. It is typically provided under high pressure,
meaning that comparatively minor pipe damage can fill a tunnel with
steam quickly.
Confined spaces contain a range of
hazards — from toxic gases like
hydrogen sulfide and
carbon monoxide, to structures that may
flood or entrap an adventurer. An explorer who enters a tunnel via
a lock bypass method or via an inadvertently-left-open door may
find himself trapped if the door locks behind him — quite possibly
in an area with no cell phone reception, and no one within
earshot.
See also
References
External links
. including
its tunnels
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search