recently interviewed Honnold<\/a> ahead of the launch of his new podcast season, and I asked him about the appeal of\u00a0Skyscraper Live.\u00a0He mentioned the relatively short time frame for the project (two weeks), as well as the thrill of ascending something so exclusive. Honnold will probably be the only person ever allowed to legally scale the 1,667-foot building.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is basically pure fun for me and the audience,\u201d he told me in October. \u201cThere\u2019s really no bigger angle to it. It\u2019s just sheer entertainment, for me and for the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honnold fielded a few additional questions about the project for Netflix\u2019s PR website, which is called TUDUM (get it\u2014TU! DUM!).\u00a0Here are some highlights from what Mr. Free Solo had to say.<\/p>\n
What It Will be Like to be Watched by Millions<\/p>\n
\u201cThat I\u2019m actually not at all concerned about, just because the feeling of being witnessed is nothing compared to the feeling of trying to do something challenging and do it well. My life is on the line\u2014I don\u2019t really care who\u2019s watching. I care about doing what I\u2019m doing and doing it well.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not really worried about the spectators. Plus, no matter how many people are watching, I\u2019m never going to see the people watching. It\u2019s not like an auditorium of people watching me. My experience is just seeing the camera guys, and the camera guys are all friends of mine, and they all want the best for me, and they\u2019re all out there having a good time. It\u2019s really positive having the camera guys around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Long He\u2019s Been Preparing for the Climb<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been climbing full-time for 30 years, so if you count all that as preparation, that\u2019s quite a lot.<\/p>\n
The direct, physical training for the building, specifically, is only maybe two and a half months ahead of time. I\u2019ve been really excited about the building, and I\u2019ve wanted to start training, but basically you don\u2019t want to over-sharpen your sword\u2014you just can\u2019t start training too soon because you burn yourself out, you get injured.<\/p>\n
I first saw this building more than ten years ago, and I\u2019ve hoped to have the opportunity to climb it since then.\u201d<\/p>\n
What He Hopes Viewers Feel During the Ascent<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure viewers will probably be on edge watching this. I assume that most people will be sort of uncomfortable watching the whole thing.<\/p>\n
But I hope that viewers get a little bit of my joy from the experience\u2014that they can appreciate the fun of it and the beauty of it, the scenery, just the whole experience. It\u2019s not just extreme sports\u2014it\u2019s more. Hopefully it\u2019ll be fun and cool and beautiful, and they can experience some of the joy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which Section Will Test Him the Most<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the hardest part of the climb will be what we\u2019re calling the bamboo boxes, which are eight segments in the middle of the building that are overhanging. Each one is eight floors, so it represents 64 floors in the middle of the building, and they\u2019re all the same.<\/p>\n
They overhang, I don\u2019t know, ten or 15 degrees\u2014it\u2019s kind of steep\u2014and then there\u2019s a balcony every eight floors. In a lot of ways, it actually feels like a climbing pitch, which is the way climbers differentiate segments of a climb.<\/p>\n
This means you do quite a hard effort for almost 100 feet, and then there\u2019s a balcony, and then you do hard effort for 100 feet, and there\u2019s a balcony. So, in a lot of ways, that\u2019s what rock climbing feels like, where you climb for a certain rope length and then you stop. The boxes are definitely the most physically demanding part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u2018Free Solo\u2019 star announced the date of his Netflix special, during which he will ascend the 1,667-foot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46,30295,104919,104920,104921,104922,104923,10825],"class_list":{"0":"post-179477","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-il","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-parent_category-adventure","17":"tag-tag-alex-honnold","18":"tag-tag-climbing","19":"tag-tag-netflix","20":"tag-tag-rock-climbing","21":"tag-tag-tv","22":"tag-type-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Honnold](\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Honnold2-scaled.jpg\")
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