continued climbing and setting new records<\/a>. Despite having had his eyes on Taipei 101 for more than a decade, the opportunity never materialized until it was pitched to Netflix, which live-streamed his ascent. Honnold called it \u201cthe biggest urban free solo climb ever.\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"Honnold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-skyscaper-live-28.jpg\")
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\n The climb was meant to happen Saturday morning local time, but was rescheduled due to poor weather. Sunday dawned sunny and clear with blue skies and little wind, allowing the climb to go ahead.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor me, personally, the biggest challenge was staying calm. Having the crowd, having the whole experience, having all the people around just made it feel a little more intense,\u201d he added. \u201cBut as I climbed, I relaxed more and more, like, \u2018Oh, this is so fun, this is why I do it.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s not the first person to climb Taipei 101: French climber Alain Robert summited the building in 2004, but with ropes. Robert had been invited to climb it as part of the building\u2019s official public opening, but conditions were far worse that day, with rain and heavy winds \u2013 making his climb four hours long, compared to Honnold\u2019s one and a half hours.\n <\/p>\n
![\"honnold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/honnold-thumb-10.jpg\")
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Alex Honnold feels really chill about climbing this skyscraper\n <\/p>\n
![\"honnold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/honnold-thumb-10.jpg&q=w_860,c_fill\")
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Alex Honnold feels really chill about climbing this skyscraper<\/p>\n
18:17 <\/p>\n
\n Both Robert and Honnold described the ascent as not overly challenging or complicated compared to the usual rock formations and mountains they climb. For instance, Honnold wasn\u2019t holding onto the sheer slippery glass of the skyscraper \u2013 he had metal structures, ledges and beams to hold onto.\n <\/p>\n
\n There were several more technically difficult moves toward the top. But Honnold cleared those without much difficulty, moving up the building at a rapid pace. At points, he stopped on balconies to take a break and wave at the crowd below.\n <\/p>\n
\n His nervous wife Sanni McCandless was watching from inside Taipei 101, waving to her husband on the other side of the glass as he passed her floor on his way up. After he summitted, she met him at a balcony below the spire, embracing him and joking: \u201cI was basically having a panic attack the entire time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-dsc00504.jpg\")
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\n When it opened in 2004, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world \u2013 a title it held until it was usurped by Dubai\u2019s 2717-foot (828-meter) Burj Kalifa. Ten other buildings taller than Taipei 101 have since been built, including New York\u2019s One World Trade Center, but it remains a spectacle in Taipei as it is the tallest building in the city.\n <\/p>\n
\n Taiwan\u2019s President Lai Ching-te was quick to congratulate Honnold on his \u201ctruly nerve-wracking\u201d spectacle. He hoped the event would allow the world to see \u201cthe warmth of the Taiwanese people and the island\u2019s beautiful hills and landscapes,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n After the climb, Honnold said he hoped people watching could be inspired by his climb to pursue their own challenges or goals. And, in his signature matter-of-fact way, he summed up his achievement with few words:\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s so great. What a nice day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taipei, Taiwan \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 For 92 minutes on a clear Sunday morning in Taipei, thousands of spectators with jittery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-250881","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-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-skyscaper-live-15.jpg\")
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