American rock climber Alex Honnold, the death-defying star of the 2018 Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, will try to scale one of the tallest buildings in the world on Saturday: Taiwan\u2019s Taipei 101 skyscraper. He will tackle all 1,667 feet of Taipei 101 the same way he tackled El Capitan, the sheer granite monolith he summited in Free Solo: without a single rope, harness or safety net.<\/p>\n
And he will do it live on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n The climb was initially scheduled to take place on Friday, but was postponed for 24 hours shortly before Honnold was set to begin his ascent due to wet weather.<\/p>\n No one has ever \u201cfree soloed\u201d Taipei 101 before \u2014 just as, before Honnold, no one had ever free soloed Yosemite\u2019s El Capitan. (Urban climber Alain Robert, better known as the French Spider-Man, scaled the skyscraper when it opened in 2004, but Taiwan\u2019s government insisted that he use a rope.)<\/p>\n Nor has anyone ever streamed such a risky endeavor in real time, as it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n So one way or another, history will be made on Skyscraper Live<\/a>, Saturday\u2019s global event. Notoriously, inexplicably fearless, Honnold himself doesn\u2019t sound spooked. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be that extreme,\u201d he recently told Robert on the latter\u2019s climbing podcast. \u201cWe\u2019ll see. I think it\u2019s the perfect sweet spot where it\u2019s hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb.\u201d<\/p>\n But the rest of us? We\u2019ll be on the edge of our seats. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about Honnold and what he\u2019s attempting to accomplish.<\/p>\n How hard is it to climb Taipei 101?<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t easy. For one thing, buildings go straight up \u2014 unlike even the most extreme rocks. \u201cBuildings are steeper than most rock faces,\u201d Honnold told Netflix\u2019s Tudum<\/a>. \u201cMost rock faces, even the ones that look vertical, aren\u2019t actually vertical, or they\u2019re not vertical for the whole way \u2014 whereas the building is vertical the whole way, so it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Glass and steel are also slippery. \u201cThose seem to be the more cruxy<\/a> moments of the medium, just trusting the glass with your climbing shoe,\u201d Colorado climber and YouTuber Noah Kane recently told Slate<\/a>. \u201cThere are a couple clips of Alain Robert slipping on a building. He doesn\u2019t fall, but his foot slips off the glass, and his heart flutters for a second.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, buildings are consistent and repetitive in ways no natural formation could ever be \u2014 which means Honnold will have to execute the same tiring moves over and over again.<\/p>\n That has its pluses and minuses. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to forget one of the key footholds or something, whereas on rock faces sometimes it\u2019s hard to remember exactly how to climb something,\u201d Honnold told Tudum. On a building, you know how to climb it, but it\u2019s physically more taxing because you\u2019re doing the same thing over and over, so your muscles get tired.\u201d<\/p>\n What will the climb actually involve?<\/p>\n Taipei 101 has 101 floors \u2014 hence the name. The hardest part will be the 64 floors in the middle, which resemble bamboo boxes. Each \u201cbox\u201d is eight stories high, and each one tapers outward, creating a challenging overhang for Honnold to navigate. Once he does, he\u2019ll be able to rest on a balcony before tackling the next box.<\/p>\n \u201cThey overhang, I don\u2019t know, 10 or 15 degrees \u2014 it\u2019s kind of steep,\u201d Honnold told Tudum. \u201cThis 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. \u2026 The boxes are definitely the most physically demanding part.\u201d<\/p>\n Will there be any safety measures at all?<\/p>\n James Smith of Plimsoll Productions told the Associated Press<\/a> that he will be able to communicate with Honnold throughout the event. Plus, there will be \u201ccameramen positioned inside the building, various hatches and places to bail during the climb and four high-angle camera operators suspended on ropes,\u201d according to the AP.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people all know Alex. They trust Alex. They\u2019re going to be close to him throughout the whole climb,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to get us kind of amazing shots, but they\u2019re also there just to keep an eye on him, and if there\u2019s any problems, they can kind of help.\u201d<\/p>\n The weather has to be right for such a risky feat.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t on Friday, so Honnold will try his luck on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s been a light shower and the building\u2019s drying off, the temperature here is pretty good, \u00a0there\u2019s often a light breeze, so the building will dry relatively quickly,\u201d Smith said in an interview with Variety<\/a>. \u201cIf it is deemed too wet, if there\u2019s too much moisture on the building, we will probably delay to the next day, which would be a Saturday night transmission in the U.S. We could even delay another day if we needed to. Obviously Alex has to be 100% comfortable and happy in himself and in the conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n The climb will also stream with a 10-second delay, in case anything goes wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can imagine\u00a0what we\u2019ll do\u201d in a worst-case scenario, Netflix unscripted series vice president Jeff Gaspin told Variety<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll cut away. We have a 10-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n But again, there won\u2019t be any ropes, harnesses or safety nets. Just Honnold\u2019s hands, feet, body and brain (along with some climbing gloves and shoes).<\/p>\n Why is Honnold climbing Taipei 101?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not?\u201d he said when Tudum asked the same question.<\/p>\n Among the other reasons Honnold has cited:<\/p>\n Opportunity: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to get permission to climb a building and [because] I have permission, I have to take advantage of it and climb the building. Basically, it\u2019s just rare to get this kind of opportunity, so you gotta jump when you can.\u201d [Tudum]<\/p>\n Novelty: \u201cI think I\u2019ve always had curiosity about what it would feel like to climb a building this big. I\u2019ve climbed tons of huge walls in the world but never something man-made like that.\u201d [Tudum]<\/p>\n Joy: \u201cMy hope is that people watching it will at least see the joy in it. Like when you\u2019re a kid and look around and think, It\u2019d be amazing to climb up there. As an adult, that gets hammered out of you. \u201cWhy would you do that? That\u2019s dangerous. Do you have insurance?\u201d 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, \u2018That is amazing. I want to do that.\u2019\u201d [New York Times<\/a>]<\/p>\n One reason that doesn\u2019t factor in, according to Honnold? Money.<\/p>\n \u201cI would do it for free,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cIf there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it\u2019d be amazing. I mean, just sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Honnold getting paid?<\/p>\n Of course. Citing two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement, the Times reports that Honnold will be \u201cpaid in the mid-six figures for the climb.\u201d<\/p>\n What about Honnold\u2019s wife and kids? Are they OK with this?<\/p>\n Not really. In 2020, Honnold married writer and climber Sanni McCandless, who was his girlfriend during the filming of Free Solo. McCandless\u2019s concern for Honnold\u2019s safety \u2014 her fear that she could lose him \u2014 was perhaps the most affecting part of the film.<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t stop Honnold then, and it\u2019s not stopping him now.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think the calculus has changed that much,\u201d Honnold told the Times. \u201cBecause I never wanted to die. Which is why I put so much effort into the preparation and training. I mean, implicit in the question is that I have more to live for, and, yeah, I have more to live for, and I\u2019m still doing my very best to not die.\u201d<\/p>\n Honnold and McCandless also have two daughters under 4, Alice and June. What about them?<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, baby Alice wouldn\u2019t remember\u201d if he died, Honnold told the Times. \u201cBaby June probably wouldn\u2019t remember. She\u2019ll be 4 in another month. It\u2019d be felt, and obviously it\u2019d be super hard for Sanni, but they\u2019d be well provided for. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019d be leaving them in the lurch. They wouldn\u2019t even necessarily be traumatized their whole lives.\u201d<\/p>\n To be fair, though, Honnold said McCandless is less \u201cworried about the actual climbing\u201d of Taipei 101 than \u201cthe event side of it, like the spectacle. She\u2019s worried about all the public commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n What other crazy things has Honnold climbed?<\/p>\n In addition to El Cap, Honnold has free soloed the Phoenix (a notoriously difficult crack climb) and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (another huge wall), both in Yosemite, as well as the long and technically demanding Moonlight Buttress in Zion. He\u2019s also climbed Synthetic Happiness in Red Rock, known for its very thin, slippery holds, and completed the first-ever traverse of Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia, which involved seven distinct peaks.<\/p>\n How to watch Skyscraper Live?<\/p>\n