Oct. 16 (UPI) — A climber offered some clues to the longstanding mystery of a how a pumpkin ends up impaled on the spire atop the University of Montana’s Main Hall each year.
A pumpkin was placed on top of the Missoula school’s Main Hall for the 30th consecutive year recently, but the identities of the anonymous pranksters remain a decades-long mystery.
The pumpkin has appeared each year since 1995 under cover of night during homecoming celebrations.A climber offered some clues as to how the pumpkin ends up on the roof in an anonymous interview with NBC Montana.
They said the ascent starts with the rear fire escape.
«Just using parts of the clock until you’re right at the top, and as you can see the green roof is just some sort of roof tile that if it has any condensation, like it usually does in a fall day or a fall night, it’s pretty slippery,» they said.
They said a whole team of climbers and assistants are involved.
«Multiple lookouts all throughout campus, middle of the night, then two climbers up top everyone looking out for UM P-D with radios and group texts what have you,» they said.The climber said the school has tried to make the tradition safer by hiring professionals.
«The university has hired some outsourced people to put it up safely and not put students at risk, but being climbers we still try to race them to do it first,» they said.