Climber Alex Honnold completed the free solo ascent of Taipei 101 in Taiwan, using no ropes to scale the massive 1,667-foot skyscraper — and he did it live, as the world watched in rapt breath and racing hearts.
It took Hornold 1 hour and 31 minutes to climb the 101-story tower on Sunday. The event was broadcast live on Netflix.
“It’s windy,” Hornold said overhead before taking a selfie. “I’m mentally disturbed… And you know what, I’m actually tired.”
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Hornold’s climb was scheduled for the previous day, January 23, but was postponed due to bad weather, Netflix said. “I think riding is always at the mercy of nature, that’s all,” Hornnold said in a video posted on social media.
Before the climb, Hornold told Tudum’s Netflix fan site that he expected viewers to “maybe watch this,” but he hoped “they’ll find a little bit of my joy in what I’ve done — that they can appreciate the fun and beauty of it, the environment, everything that’s going on.”
Taipei 101 is one of the tallest buildings in the world. The building was designed by CY Lee & Partners and opened in 2004. It is home to observatories, restaurants, a shopping mall and offices, and the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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Frenchman Alain Robert measured the tower as part of its opening. Robert used ropes, and it took him more than four hours, Hornold told Tudum. “I think, if I do this, it will be the largest free city,” he added.
Honnold again climbed the famous El Capitan without any ropes or safety gear in June 2017. El Capitan is a nearly 3,000-foot granite wall – more than twice the height of the Empire State Building – in the north valley of Yosemite National Park in California. His incredible work captured the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.”
That solo free ride on the Freerider route took Hornold 3 hours and 56 minutes. The following year, Hornold and fellow climber Tommy Caldwell climb the route of El Capitan’s Nose in 1 hour, 58 minutes and 7 seconds, shattering the previous speed record and breaking the two-hour barrier.
On “Note to Self” on “CBS Mornings” in 2018, Hornold Think about what it took to climb El Capitan without any strings attached, he tells his 18-year-old self: “Right now, you’re afraid of a lot of things: strangers, girls, vegetables, falling to your death. It’s okay; fear is a natural part of life. You’ll always feel fear.”
“But in time you will realize that the only way to control your fear is to expand your comfort zone,” she said. “It’s a long, slow process that requires you to keep pushing yourself, but eventually you’ll feel good, and you’ll be climbing big walls like this.”
Hornold and his wife, Sanni McCandless Honnold, have two daughters together.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
