{"id":263390,"date":"2026-01-25T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263390\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:33:09","slug":"us-rock-climber-scales-taiwan-skyscraper-without-ropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263390\/","title":{"rendered":"US rock climber scales Taiwan skyscraper without ropes"},"content":{"rendered":"

American rock climber Alex Honnold has ascended the Taipei 101 skyscraper without any ropes or protective equipment.<\/p>\n

Cheers erupted from a street-level crowd in Taiwan as he reached the top of the spire of the 508m (1,667ft) tower about 90 minutes after he started.<\/p>\n

Wearing a red short-sleeve shirt, Honnold waved his arms back and forth over his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like what a view, it\u2019s incredible, what a beautiful day,\u201d he said afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"APTOPIXRock climber Alex Honnold, of the U.S., raised his fist as he climbs on top of the Taipei 101 skyscraper (Chiang Ying-ying\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very windy, so I was like, don\u2019t fall off the spire. I was trying to balance nicely. But it was, what an incredible position, what a beautiful way to see Taipei.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honnold, known for his ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park\u2019s El Capitan, climbed up one corner of Taipei 101 using small L-shaped outcroppings as footholds.<\/p>\n

Periodically, he had to manouevre around and clamber up the sides of large ornamental structures that jut out from the tower, pulling himself up with his bare hands.<\/p>\n

The building has 101 floors, with the hardest part being the 64 floors of the middle section \u2014 the \u201cbamboo boxes\u201d that give the building its signature look.<\/p>\n

\"TaiwanA fan of rock climber Alex Honnold held up a poster (Chiang Ying-ying\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

Divided into eight, each segment has eight floors of steep, overhanging climbing followed by balconies, where he took short rests as he made his way upward.<\/p>\n

Honnold\u2019s free solo climb of the iconic building in Taiwan\u2019s capital city was broadcast live on Netflix with a 10-second delay. The ascent, originally scheduled for Saturday, was delayed for 24 hours due to rain.<\/p>\n

Having a cheering crowd was unusual and a bit unnerving at first for Honnold, whose climbs are usually in remote areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was leaving the ground, you\u2019re like \u2018oh it\u2019s kind of intense, there\u2019s so many people watching\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then honestly, they\u2019re all wishing me well. I mean basically it just makes the whole experience feel almost more festive, all these nice people are out supporting me and having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaiwanRock climber Alex Honnold spoke to reporters after the climb (Chiang Ying-ying\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

The climb drew both excitement and concern over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavour on live broadcast.<\/p>\n

Honnold is not the first climber to ascend Taipei 101 but he is the first to do so without a rope.<\/p>\n

French rock climber Alain Robert scaled the building on Christmas Day in 2004 as part of the grand opening of what was then the world\u2019s tallest building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American rock climber Alex Honnold has ascended the Taipei 101 skyscraper without any ropes or protective equipment. Cheers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-263390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}