Photo Credits: National Geographic
Alex Honnold, an American rock climber known for his free-solo climbs, became the only person to successfully free-solo climb one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, Taipei 101, a skyscraper located in Taiwan. This skyscraper consists of 101 stories and is 1,667 feet tall.
Honnold is no stranger to free climbing as he also became the first person to complete the climb of El Capitan as a solo climber. Honnold has crushed hundreds of free-solo climbs in his career, but El Capitan ranks among his most well-known. Taipei 101 held higher stakes because it was set to be broadcasted live on Netflix for millions to watch.
This feat has never been attempted as a free-solo climb; however, the climb was completed by Alain Robert, a French climber. Robert completed the climb on Christmas Day 2004 as part of their grand opening festivities, and at this time it was the tallest building in the world. He had to battle treacherous weather conditions with wind and rain, and he was able to complete the climb after a little more than 4 hours.
Over 6.2 million people tuned in to see if the American would be able to complete this challenge. The event occurred live on January 24th, despite being scheduled early, it had to be moved due to weather conditions.
Many probably questioned what would happen if he fell while on a live broadcast. Netflix implemented a 10 second delay to be able to pan away and, cut the broadcast in case an emergency occurred. Elle Duncan, the host, revealed on the Awful Announcing podcast that she was given a card with a specific script in case of an accident.
Fortunately, Honnold was able to make it through the climb in just over an hour and a half. This crushed the previous record by more than half the time. However, Honnold only received an estimated $500,000 for his accomplishment.
Some may think it is crazy and reckless, and they may not understand why anyone would put their life at risk, but for Honnold it was a bucket list item that he was able to achieve.
