American daredevil Alex Honnold completes free-climb of Taipei 101
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TAIPEI – An American climber took on Taiwan’s tallest building on Jan 25, without ropes or safety gear, in a daring feat that drew hundreds of spectators to the tower’s base and many more online through a live Netflix broadcast.
After an hour and a half, Alex Honnold, 40, made it to the top of Taipei 101, which towers 508m into the air, before rappelling down to reunite with his wife.
Speaking at a press briefing afterwards, he said “time is finite” and people should “use it in the best way”.
“If you work really hard... you can do hard things,” he added.
He has conquered some of the world’s most intimidating rock faces and rose to global fame in 2017 after he climbed Yosemite’s massive granite monolith “El Capitan”, lauded among his peers as the pinnacle of technical difficulty.
It had always been a dream to add scaling Taipei 101 to his list of achievements, he told reporters. His first request was rejected.
“For the project to come together more than a decade later... It’s so great. What an opportunity, it is such a pleasure,” he added.
Honnold is the first person to free solo climb Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net, but not the first to scale the building.
Mr Richard Bode, 34, said watching the event was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience”.
Another onlooker, known only as Benson, 24, called the climb “incredibly brave”. Others like Ms Lin Chia-jou, 54, told AFP that she found it “terrifying” but admired Honnold for the hard work he put into achieving his dream.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te congratulated Honnold in a Facebook post on Jan 25, branding the challenge “truly moving”.
“The climb was tense, setting hearts racing,” he added in the post.
‘Lifelong dream’
The challenge, titled Skyscraper Live, was scheduled to be broadcast on Netflix on Jan 24, but it was postponed due to bad weather
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to climb a skyscraper,” Honnold said in a promotional video for the climb on Netflix’s Facebook page on Jan 20.
“So I am going to be free-soloing Taipei 101... No ropes, no gear, just me and the building.”
He declared it would mark the “biggest urban free-solo climb” ever to be attempted. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, he moved up the 101-storey glass and steel building swiftly.
The weather was clear as he scaled the south-east face.
At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos of the ascent.
People watching from inside the building could be seen gawking and tapping at the glass as Honnold scrambled past the enclosed glass observation deck on the 89th floor.
Taipei 101 chairwoman Janet Chia said on Jan 24 on Threads that it was touching to hear that fans travelled from Singapore, Hong Kong and southern Taiwan to watch the climb and apologised for the delay in the event.
“But this epic event is definitely worth the wait,” she added.
The climb took Honnold 90 minutes to reach the top, where he could be seen looking down at the crowd with his arms up in the air.
In 2004, Alain Robert, dubbed “the French Spiderman”, was the first person to climb the skyscraper, but did so in rainy conditions with the help of safety ropes. AFP
