tres.pass
verb
1:the criminal act of going into someone else's land or property without the owner/lessee's permission.
You might ask yourself what could one possibly be looking for when entering an abandoned building? Most would associate the search for trouble or possibly the off chance of ghosts. What really drives people to become urban explorers? Why set foot in a long forgotten dreary factory or derelict church? The adventure sought could be quite reminiscent of expeditions
of old. Finding your way into a boarded up grade school evokes the thrill of looking for Livingston in the jungle and scaling the ruins of some lost civilization. It is due to the fact that the places we go are forgotten by all that surround them that makes the act exciting. Discovering a chair that has not been sat upon for forty years is the modern equivalent of the Mayan ruins. Finding a way onto the roof of that twenty story building with the greatest view of Lake Michigan at dawn is an urban Mount Everest.
It is not just the taboo excitement that accompanies exploring a place where the public is not allowed; the search for the past is also prevalent in the mind of the urban explorer. The discovery and appreciation of older architecture in a day of glass box buildings and rows of matching gentrified condos is also taken into account. It is in the details of the past that we find our origin.
When the owners of any property see fit to let it go wayside, the doors open for the urban explorer. (In most cases vandals get there first and forcibly open the door for others.) The explorer breaks no glass, busts no lock, and tags no wall. This set of ethics is what separates us from the graffiti artist or common vandal. Most are photographers, others are archiphiles looking for a new sight. The natural decay of the building is what interests the explorer most. It is unfortunate that some places of desolate beauty are defiled by a volatile amateur with a can of weak, suburban bought spray paint.
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