Ontheroofs is an urban exploration photography project by Vitaliy Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov, from Ukraine and from Russia respectively. Their main focus of photography is the exploration of high-rise architectural structures like skyscrapers, bridges, historic sites and cathedrals. Raskalov and Makhorov have been notable for their number of free-climbs up famous buildings and monuments around the world. Typically, their videos are uploaded onto YouTube and showcase their ascent and descent. Their most popular video, of the Shanghai Tower, has over 59 million views as of November 2016. Raskalov and Makhorov appeared as recurring cast in the documentary series URBEX- Enter At Your Own Risk, which launched globally on Red Bull TV on August 1, 2016.
Notable Climbs
Raskalov and Makhorov received press attention in early 2014 when they climbed up the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world. They entered the construction site of the unfinished tower during the Lunar New Year and filmed a video, which attracted over 56 million views on YouTube as of September 2016. Initially, a premium eyewear brand Ray-Ban allegedly sponsored the video, but pulled back after the rupture of negotiation. The popularity of the video sparked a discussion on the safety and the liability of the incident. It was reported that the Chinese authorities would ban the climbers from re-entering the country, but their pseudonyms allowed them to slip through the net a year later and climb Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen, China.
In April 2016, a video was posted of them climbing the Lotte World Tower in Seoul. Despite the construction site having guard dogs, security officers and monitoring drones, Raskalov and Makhorov managed to bypass the security and climb the under construction building.