Rooftopping, sometimes called roofing, refers to the (typically illegal) unsecured ascent of rooftops, skyscrapers, towers, cranes, antennas, smokestacks, or other tall structures. Rooftoppers usually take photos or videos of their climbs. The practice of scaling skyscrapers often results in security crackdowns and arrests. Many people have died or been injured when falling while rooftopping. The activity is closely related to the activity of urban climbing (or buildering).
Rooftopping is an activity primarily undertaken by younger people. While similar in some ways to buildering (climbing the outside of buildings), it typically involves gaining roof access from within the building using stairs and/or ladders up to a roof access door or hatch.
Rooftopping is a subset of urban exploration and urban climbing and is generally illegal, often requiring trespassing and bypassing locked doors.
Rooftoppers usually take videos and panoramic photographs, either by themselves or with the help of a crew of assistants or accomplices who may be present on the climb or filming from a distance. Video footage is typically taken using helmet cameras. Quadcopter drones may also be used, both for pre-climb exploration and for recording the act itself. Because it is often practiced in pursuit of making video or photo content, rooftopping tends to provoke heightened security and greater restriction of access to desirable exploration sites after said content is published.
In one report presented to American Educational Research Association in 1995 participants were suggested as thrill seekers who enjoy "high levels of stimulation and complexity of thinking," although other theories explaining their motivation exist.
There was a rooftopping "craze" in Russia around 2017.
