Roof and tunnel hacking

On August 1, 2016, Red Bull TV launched the documentary series URBEX – Enter At Your Own Risk, which also chronicles roof and tunnel hacking.

[citation needed] 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 (also known as Colossal Cave Adventure).

[citation needed] Thus, vadding and vadders began to refer to people who undertook actions in real life similar to those in the game.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

Tunnel access points tend to be in locked mechanical rooms where steam pipes and other utilities enter a building, and through manholes.

Universities generally prohibit roof and tunnel hacking, either by explicit policies or blanket rules against entry into non-public utility spaces.

[3] 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.

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.

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 roof-mounted equipment.

It is typically provided under high pressure, meaning that comparatively minor pipe damage can fill a tunnel with steam quickly.

In 2008, a high-pressure steam pipe exploded in the subbasement of Building 66 at MIT, apparently due to a construction defect.

[7] 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.