It was almost exactly two years ago in November of '05 and I was meeting a couple of other explorers for the first time in person. I've always explored alone and didn't know what to expect from JGrant and the coolest explorer pseudonym ever, noah vale. I was on my stomach trying to get a good angle to photograph a statue near the Pearl station when they called me on my cell. They were just a few feet away when they spotted me and we hooked up. They were a lot younger than me (who isn't?) and nv had a lip ring like mine. We were headed to the Davis building, which we knew had easy roof access and JG said "On the way here, I noticed a door had been chocked open for the workers at the Republic Bank building..." "Change of plan!" I said as we headed for the open door JG had found. We made our way up the 36 flights of fire escape stairs to the roof. Immediately we split up. NV set his tripod on the wall and started shooting downtown as JG and I headed for the spire. It's 150' with a ladder that JG bolted up. I got a photo but you can't quite make out anything but his glasses. The hatch at the top was locked. Too bad. We started taking some night time pano's when I noticed and pointed out a woman in the adjacent tower who was working late. A few minutes later, NV said "We've been made. That woman was cupping her eyes at the window checking us out. Time to bail." We headed down the stairs but 36 flights takes some time, even at full speed. I hit the door first and went out and across the street to Thanksgiving Square to see if any security showed up. The other guys were nowhere to be seen. I waited a while and they finally showed up. I'd taken the street level door while NV and JG went down two more sets of stairs to the basement. They got some sweet shots of the mechanical room and I kicked myself for not going with them. It was a great time though and I met a couple of great guys.