Man climbs Taipei 101 with no equipment

Rock climber Alex Honnold has decided to level up from climbing mountains to climbing buildings. On January 25th, thousands of spectators gathered together at the base of Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan to watch this amazing feat of bravery. The climb was recorded for a forthcoming Netflix documentary called SKYSCRAPER.

This massive building is made of metal, glass and concrete, with more than 1600 feet to climb. Honnold decided to climb this monster of a building with no ropes or safety equipment, only chalk and climbing shoes, a method called free soloing, which is a type of climbing that involves no ropes.

When climbing, Honnold wore a headset to connect with and give updates about the climb to the ground crew. He managed to climb the building in one go, and only paused to wave to his supporters through the glass windows.

Honnold completed the climb in less than two hours, beating the time of the only other person to climb Taipei 101, frenchman Alain Robert. Also known by his nickname “Spiderman,” Robert climbed the the building in around four hours, without safety gear.

Honnold now holds the fastest time to free solo a skyscraper. After reaching the ground by elevator, Honnold only had one word for the climb, which was “Sick”. Honnold expressed excitement for more challenging climbs like this one in the future.