FREDERICTON -- His family is worried he'll die in a fall, and police are, too.
But 18-year-old Noah Kingston says his recent stunts as a so-called urban climber in Fredericton -- all captured in jaw-dropping videos posted on social media -- are just the beginning.
"I want to keep rising up, climbing the ladder," Kingston said in an interview Tuesday. "The videos I've posted are just the start."
His latest video -- posted last week -- shows him walking on the steel girders beneath a large highway bridge high above the St. John River.
Alycia Bartlett, spokeswoman for New Brunswick's Public Safety Department, issued a statement Tuesday saying authorities are "greatly concerned" about the videos.
"This type of reckless behaviour is very dangerous, not only for the person or people involved, but also for bystanders or first responders, should something go wrong."
The video from his recent bridge climb show him ascending on the outside of a safety cage that surrounds a metal ladder. A walkway under the bridge is largely ignored as the high school student -- wearing sneakers, a T-shirt, jeans and a tuque -- crosses narrow beams, his hands at his side, the water sparkling far below.
Kingston said he wants to keep climbing higher -- without permission and without safety equipment.
"It started out as an adrenalin rush ... and now I just get into it, climbing new heights exploring new views," he said.
"It's calming. There's no other thoughts ... I'm just thinking about climbing. Some people go to therapy and stuff. I can do more by just climbing a bridge."
Other YouTube videos and Instagram images show him scaling the sides of industrial buildings, using vertical pipes to ascend the walls. He's clambered up huge construction cranes and radio towers, and one particularly disturbing video shows him balancing on a railing atop a parking garage.
In her statement, Bartlett said police have yet to receive any complaints.
Kingston said police have escorted him from some of the sites he's climbed, but they have yet to arrest him or lay charges.
"They're understanding with it because kids will be kids, though I've taken that to an extreme," he said, adding that police have warned him he faces charges if he returns to the sites where he has been caught.
Kingston said he understands others are being put at risk.
"I feel bad for that," he said. "The last thing I would want is for someone to come and rescue me."
His grandmother, Edith Kingston, said she had tried to persuade him to stop climbing.
"I fear it, really," she said in an interview from Upper Tracy, N.B.
"(But) he loves doing it. He started off in trees ... I've tried to talk to him, and his father talked to him. He doesn't listen to his mother much ... It's all he wants to live for. And he wants to climb higher."
The teen's risk-taking behaviour has attracted admirers, including a local business that recently hired him as a part-time aborist, which typically involves climbing trees with a chainsaw.
As for those who suggest Kingston has a screw loose, he dismisses such talk.
"I only focus on the positive. Just because it's illegal or dangerous, they don't understand or open their mind to why I'm actually doing it ... You shouldn't bring people down for what they love."
-- By Michael MacDonald in Halifax
