Buildering by Jan van der Meulen As far as I know, the copyright to all the stunt-pictures belongs to Jan van der Meulen, Peter Mosch, Jan's father and several friends. He is willing to let you use them, but please contact me (or him) first. Reports of more buildering projects can be found here.

Free climbs by Jan van der Meulen

• The most recent climb by Jan van der Meulen - Solo 104 m - April 2001 - De Hooge Heren - With pictures of the police

• The bishop's tower - 45m - 19 May 1983
• The post-office building - 60m - August 1983
• These adventures in Jan's own words (in Dutch)

Artificial climbs by Jan van der Meulen

• Willemsbrug (bridge) - 65m - 9 June 1986
• Willemswerf (building) - 88m - 30 April 1998
• A solid concrete chimney of the PZEM in Vlissingen - 150m - 21 April 1990
  This climb took 7 hours. Jan used an electric drill and 6mm steel nails (not the usual climbing-bolts). He planned to climb it illegally, but an artist wanted to put a large arrow on top, and then they got permission.
• Horizontal traverse - Boompjes - 1997 with pictures from the TV-recordings
• He may be planning to climb the Erasmus-bridge - 139m - some time in the future

Long rappels by Jan van der Meulen

In Jan's opinion a long rappel should be completely free. Your feet should not touch the wall of the building. That's too easy.

• Roof of the White House - 45m - 1978
• Platform of the Euromast - 104m - 30 April 1984
• Building crane of the World Trade Center - 93m - 30 November 1985
• Temporary drilling platform Noordereiland - November 1987
• Building crane of Nationale Nederlanden - 170m - 12 February 1990

Buildering routes - for free-climbing

Long, long ago, before the advent of the climbing-halls you had to climb whatever you could find. In those days Jan van der Meulen opened a lot of historic buildering routes in Rotterdam. They are delightful practice stuff for advanced climbers. The bonus is that you don't have to pay to climb them.

Jan van der Meulen has given me copies of his maps and route descriptions. I am re-visiting these routes, making pictures and trying to climb them. Those I've visited are documented in more detail. I've included Jan's estimates of the difficulty of the routes but I have the feeling that he underestimates them somewhat.

• The list of Jan's buildering - bouldering routes

Bigwall climbing

• Jan's speciality is bigwall climbing. Buildering is just something he does for fun and to keep in shape. He has made his own website with nice pictures and reports (the link is on my link-page).
• And a report (in Dutch) about one of his Yosemite bigwall-climbs is included on my page.

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© 1998 - 2001 Jan van der Meulen, Petr Kazil - Do you know more Urban Adventurers like Jan van der Meulen ? Mail me at (obfuscated) kazil a.t euronet d.o.t nl