Companion for Whatever It Takes

A companion piece to Driftershoots “Whatever it takes” WMVG Sotheby’s auction. Take during the very same mission. When I get together with Isaac Wright it naturally conclude with us doing something intense where we test our limits. This day was the epitome of that. There we were again, breathing heavily from exhaustion sitting in the 65th floor staircase ok the threshold of one of NY finest spire clad rooftops. As we were failing to pick the lock of the of the top roof door at the other end of the fancy new rooftop restaurant, a woman came upon us. I asked her to unlock the door for us and she proceeds to do so. No questions asked, she was a friendly and vibing as can be. On e in a lifetime stroke of luck. We walk around the private 360 view glass encased top floor. 70 stories above downtown. The hatch leading to the spire is shut and the ladders are non present. We go out on the balcony. We being Greg “GBerg” Berg and Isaac “Drift” Wright. Isaac steps into his main character and say we can accomplish the climb up to the spire from the balcony. Perhaps 5 floor up, with 70 below us. The moment happens when the lady walks away and he climbs. It’s hard but he does it. I doubt myself if I can follow. The ice and snow makes it harder, we are in the biggest blizzard of the winter after all. “Do it for me” he shouts down, and I know all that it means by the sound of his voice. The emotional significance, the fine line between breaking and pushing through. Right there, towing the line: leave with Greg or climb up one of the most intense climbs in my life with Isaac? To the top, and don’t look back, I go up. I make it up and the icy facade and the wind gusts make it expressly uneasy to be there. We climb up another section, the ropes help. Isaac leads and finds a broken window he can unscrew with her Gerber tool. He pops the window open and we can climb inside the spire base above the restaurants head. 2 floors instead of all 5 up to the spire platform. Floor 1 and 3 being the hardest of the climb, we are glad to bypass it. We climb extremely silently up the spires messy interior, careful not to make a noise. I reach the top hatch and I pop it open. We now have spire access. We are overjoyed and exhilarated, but the cold is so intense our fingers numb and electronics start malfunctioning. We shoot some photos and 360 video. We climb back down to warm up inside the spires neck. We start worrying about how or if we can get down. Will the restaurant be full of people? Are we even able to climb back down? Is the balcony door closed and locked now? Do we open the bottom hatch and put the giant ladder down in the middle of a dinner event or cocktail party? We heat up as much as possible while one’s breath still fogs the air as we exhale. We climb again. Drift looses a glove. I fear the worst in that moment. Will he be able to climb down safely on the icy frozen metal edges or will his fingers numb and give away? He climbs back down to reheat while I stay to shoot more. “I am Swedish darn it! I was born in the snow. I can do this the coke doesn’t master me!!” I should into the permafrost sunset radiant of LSD level piercing red hues. I climb the other side of the spire. I shoot more and I leave. My 360 camera starts malfunctioning because it’s too cold. I take 10m to heat back up. I wrap my scarf around Isaacs exposed hand so he can grip subzero metal features of the building better. We commence the climb down. We perform it better then expected. No one is there at the top floor the moment we drop down the 1 story straight drop at the end from above the door. We escape through fancy dinner halls now dimly lit with lounge music playing and full staff. We make it down to the street and over to his hotel room. We play a velvet underground record on the vinyl player, defrost and decompress. We can’t believe what we just did. A magickal fortune and daring ice escapades in freezing -10C with exceptional strong winds (chill factor -20C) by heart has never been warmer.