NEED TO KNOW
- Alex Honnold successfully climbed a 101-story skyscraper without any ropes or harnesses
- His daring effort to free solo Taiwan’s Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world, took place on Jan. 24 and aired live on Netflix
- Honnold, now a dad of two, has been climbing for about 30 years and was previously featured in the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo
Alex Honnold has done it again.
The 40-year-old climber and dad of two successfully climbed Taiwan’s Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world, without any ropes or harnesses on Sunday, Jan. 25 (or Saturday, Jan. 24 in America) — and the event aired live on Netflix.
The free solo special, Skyscraper Live, was originally scheduled to take place on Friday, Jan. 23, but weather prompted the streamer to postpone the event by 24 hours.
“I was basically having a panic attack the entire time,” Honnnold’s wife, Sanni McCandless, told him as he began his descent, adding, “You did great!”
Honnold has been climbing for about 30 years. He was previously featured in the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo, which chronicled his successful 2017 attempt to become the first person to summit El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without safety ropes.
Before his latest feat, the rock climber — who shares two daughters with McCandless — told Netflix’s Tudum that he’s “always had curiosity about what it would feel like to climb a building this big.”
“It’s just rare to get this kind of opportunity, so you gotta jump when you can,” he added.
One aspect that made the climb different, he told Tudum, is that “buildings are steeper than most rock faces” that he climbs.
Still, he reiterated that, as always, he has the same goal for his latest climb: Don’t fall off.
Besides not falling, he said his main focus is just to enjoy himself.
“I’m very confident that I can climb the building, which is why I’m doing this,” he said, “but I want to have a good time, I want to smile and enjoy myself, I want to have a good experience.”
According to Climbing Magazine, Honnold started climbing in gyms by the young age of five. At 10 years old, he was already participating in local and national climbing competitions and he began climbing full-time in 2007.
Per his website, he founded the environmental nonprofit Honnold Foundation in 2012. The organization is dedicated to supporting solar energy initiatives worldwide. He also hosts the Climbing Gold podcast.
As for how he’ll be celebrating after his climb, he previously told Tudum that he’ll “take the elevator down, I’ll see my wife, we’ll be psyched.”
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“We’ll eat at the buffet that night — it’s a really nice buffet — it’ll be great,” he continued, “and that will be the day. Then I’ll go home, and I’ll go back to my climbing practice.”
Skyscraper Live aired on Netflix.
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