Alex Honnold, one of the most successful climbers in history, is set to ascend the Taipei 101 skyscraper later this week, without any safety equipment and with millions of people watching on live TV.
Honnold has become renowned for his free solo climbs, where he ascends mountain faces completely unassisted.
His daring feats have even earned him an Oscar for the documentary Free Solo.
But this Friday, he isn’t conquering a natural cliff face, instead he will be attempting to scale a 1,667-foot-tall, 101-storey skyscraper in Taiwan, dubbed “his most daring feat yet” by Netflix who will be livestreaming the climb.
Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world until 2009, when it was pushed off the top spot by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and is now the 11th-tallest building in the world.
Honnold is attempting to become the first person to climb the building unassisted – this means no rope, no equipment except the bare basics and no safety, just him and the tower.
To add to the jeopardy, his feat will be broadcast live at 8pm local time (1am GMT, Saturday, January 24) on Netflix.
So why is a father-of-two scaling a skyscraper with no ropes or gear with the world watching?
Alex Honnold is set to ascend the Taipei 101 skyscraper, with Netflix broadcasting the climb live
Who is Alex Honnold?
Honnold is a 40-year-old world-renowned rock climber from the US, who holds numerous records.
He claims he began climbing at the age of ten, although his mother, Dierdre Wolownick, told ITV News’ US Partner CNN in 2012 that he was “always trying to get vertical”.
“At 11 hours old, he would hold on to your pinkie and stand up on his little legs.”
Climbing is clearly in the blood: his mother Wolownick started climbing at age 60 and is the oldest woman to climb El Capitan at 70.
Honnold married Sanni McCandless in 2020 and they have had two daughters.
Before settling down, Honnold spent much of his early life living out of a van, staying close to some of his favourite outdoor climbs. Since becoming a father, he has spent more time staying at his house near Las Vegas.
In 2012, Honnold and fellow climber Hans Florine set a speed-climbing record for ascending the vertical nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California.
Honnold beat his record three more times in 2018 with his friend Tommy Caldwell, with his final attempt bringing it under two hours for the first time. He also holds the first-ever free solo (alone and without ropes) climb of El Capitan in 2017.
Honnold managed to climb the 3,000-foot granite wall in under four hours, without a safety harness or ropes to catch him if he fell.
Taipei 101 was once the tallest building in the world. Credit: AP
Following the climb, Honnold told the Associated Press: “I was probably the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s something that I thought about for so long and dreamed about and worked so hard for. I mean, it’s pretty satisfying.”
At the time, the New York Times described the solo climb as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever”.
The spectacle was made into an Academy Award-winning documentary, Free Solo.
National Geographic originally planned to broadcast Honnold climbing Taipei 101 in 2014 but called it off over safety concerns.
What is free solo climbing?
There are many different forms of climbing, but, of all of them, free solo is the most dangerous.
Most outdoor climbs are done with ropes and a partner, using a belay system where both climbers are attached and if one person falls, the other positions themself, either on the ground or attached to the wall, to catch their weight.
Solo climbers also use pitons and hammers to slowly stick small hooked pieces of metal (the piton) into the rock, so they can attach a rope to it in case they fall.
Free solo climbing throws all of this out of the window; this is one person with a bag of chalk used on the hands to improve their grip, specialist climbing shoes, and that’s it. No partner, no ropes, no safety.
How has he prepared, and what is he saying about it?
Speaking to Netflix in December, Honnold said he picked Taipei 101 “because it’s amazing and it’s an incredible building. It’s possible, which a lot of skyscrapers aren’t — it’s uniquely suited for climbing.
“Now, because it’s really hard to get permission to climb a building and I have permission, I have to take advantage of it and climb the building.
Alex Honnold was the first person to free solo climb El-Capitan. Credit: AP
“Basically, it’s just rare to get this kind of opportunity, so you gotta jump when you can.”
Although the unique design of Taipei 101 may allow a human being to climb it, due to its tiered design, part of the building overhangs, making the climbing much harder.
He has been climbing full-time for 30 years, but said his direct preparation for the climb started in November where he did the route with ropes.
A lot of the preparation has been about training the mind and said his psychological state on the day of the climb will be the most important factor on the day, more important than weather or fatigue.
With a stoic outlook on life, he said processes fear by thinking “of it as ‘I’m experiencing sensation in my body’, I can either heed that or not — either that means something or it doesn’t.”
He added: “If something happens, once you’ve registered that it’s happened, it’s already happened — so it’s done and you’re fine, you didn’t fall off.
“So technically, by the time you realise what’s happening, you’re already good, and what you have to do is calm yourself back down and then return to what you’re doing, which is obviously easier said than done.”
He also said his age had changed his approach, saying: “When you’re 23, you just go for it — you don’t really care. As a 40-year-old, you’re like, ‘I’ll just spend the extra day, I’ll do some prep work, I’ll be careful, and it’s fine.’”
What about safety?
Obviously, climbing a skyscraper unassisted without safety ropes is not safe.
He will have no safety net or rescue if he falls.
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Although daunting, Honnold has claimed he believes some of the other solo climbs he has done will be more difficult than Taipei 101.
Because its manmade building, almost all the moves will be exactly the same, whereas a jagged cliff will have varying and sometimes unpredictable levels of difficulty.
He has invented his own difficulty rating for buildings as opposed to the more routine ratings used for cliffs and rocks.
Under Honnold’s scale, Taipei 101 is 5.5 out of 6 in difficulty.
He said Netflix were the only network to take the risk that he may fall. If he falls at any point outside of the first few metres, it is likely he will die as a result.
The weather will need to be perfect, with organisers prepared to call if off in case their is even a hint of rain.
How can you watch it?
The climb will take place in Taiwan on the evening of January 23. Viewers in the UK will be able to watch it live on Netflix at 1am on January 24.
The stream will then be made watchable on Netflix shortly afterwards.
During extremely risky live broadcasts like this, operators usually stream with a delay so they have time to cut in case an accident happens.
Netflix has not commented on whether there will be a delay built into the livestream, but the Observer reported they believed there will be a ten-second one.
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