{"id":264592,"date":"2026-01-26T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/264592\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:59:16","slug":"climber-scales-taipei-101-skyscraper-without-ropes-live-on-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/264592\/","title":{"rendered":"Climber scales Taipei 101 skyscraper without ropes live on Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The free solo climber Alex Honnold shifted his focus from rock faces to glass skyscrapers this weekend, completing what was the highest urban climb in history.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old made it to the top of the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan unaided \u2014 without ropes or safety equipment, wearing just a T-shirt, tracksuit trousers and climbing shoes. His stunt was streamed live on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Honnold left the ground at 9am local time and took one hour and 35 minutes to climb the 1,677-ft, 101-storey tower, which was the tallest building in the world until the 2010 construction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I can remember I always wanted to climb things,\u201d Honnold told Netflix<\/a> before the climb. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to climb the coolest thing that I could find.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanni McCandless, his wife who was watching the climb in Taiwan, said she was \u201cexcited to see him fulfil a lifelong dream\u201d. She continued: \u201cLike all relationships it just comes down to trust. I trust him and I trust his decision-making process.\u201d <\/p>\n

The tower was previously scaled by the urban climber Alain Robert<\/a>, known as the \u201cFrench Spiderman\u201d, in 2004. It took him nearly four hours, with the use of safety ropes.<\/p>\n

The first part of the climb consisted of sloped steel and glass, followed by what looked like eight glass boxes stacked on top of each other, with an enormous metal \u201cdragon\u201d jutting out of each corner. The remaining section of the tower was made up of overhangs, rings and, at its tip, the spire \u2014 which was the most dangerous section of the climb. <\/p>\n

Honnold took a selfie when he finally got to the top. <\/p>\n

The camera crew hung in harnesses on wires around him, filming the climb, and a crowd of thousands gathered below. People inside the building took photos and waved at him as he climbed past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big building,\u201d he said on his mic, partway up the building. \u201cWhat a beautiful day in Taipei.\u201d <\/p>\n

The climb was originally scheduled to take place on Friday, but it was postponed due to wet weather conditions. \u201cSadly [I] can\u2019t climb a skyscraper while it\u2019s raining,\u201d he said in a video on social media. <\/p>\n

\"Climber<\/p>\n

Honnold on the side of 101 Skyscraper<\/p>\n

ANN WANG\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\"Climber\"Alex<\/p>\n

In an interview with the New York Times last week, Honnold said he hoped people would see the \u201cjoy\u201d in it. \u201cLike when you\u2019re a kid and look around and think, It\u2019d be amazing to climb up there,\u201d he said. \u201cAs an adult, that gets hammered out of you. \u2018Why would you do that? That\u2019s dangerous. Do you have insurance?\u2019 You know, all that type of stuff. But there\u2019s something to be said for maintaining that childlike joy of just looking at it, like, that is amazing. I want to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honnold became a household name after becoming the first person to scale El Capitan<\/a>, a 3,000ft summit in Yosemite National Park, without a rope. The stunt was featured in the 2018 Bafta and Oscar-winning film Free Solo. <\/p>\n

Before that, he climbed the Moonlight Buttress and the Half Dome. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m doing these hard free solos, I like to think that the risk, the chance of me falling off is quite low even though the consequence is extremely high,\u201d he said in Free Solo. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the appeals of free soloing, to take something that seems difficult and dangerous and make it feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

There had been significant public debate about the live streaming of the event, in case of catastrophe. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a conversation that everybody has,\u201d Jeff Gaspin, Netflix\u2019s vice-president of unscripted series, told Variety. \u201cYou can imagine what we\u2019ll do. It\u2019s nothing momentous. We\u2019ll cut away. We have a ten-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen. But we will cut away, and it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crowd<\/p>\n

Crowds gather to watch Honnold<\/p>\n

CHIANG YING-YING\/AP<\/p>\n

\"Alex\"People<\/p>\n

Honnold lives in Las Vegas with his wife, whom he met at a book signing event in 2015, with their two daughters, aged three and one. <\/p>\n

His passion for climbing started as a child with trips to the climbing gym at age five. He eventually started to road trip and go to campgrounds more often. Honnold has said he started soloing because \u201che didn\u2019t want to talk to strangers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that when he\u2019s free soloing, that\u2019s when he feels the most alive, the most everything, feels the most,\u201d Deidre Wolownick, Honnold\u2019s mother who started climbing at age 60 and became the oldest woman to climb El Capitan aged 66, said in Free Solo. \u201cAnd how can you ever think about taking that away from someone? I wouldn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The free solo climber Alex Honnold shifted his focus from rock faces to glass skyscrapers this weekend, completing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-264592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264592","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=264592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}