Alex Honnold is about to make history again.
On Friday, the legendary free soloist will attempt something no one has ever done before: scaling Taiwan’s 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper without ropes, harnesses, or safety nets.
And millions will watch it happen live on Netflix.
The same fearless climber who captivated audiences in 2018’s Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo is now taking his death-defying talents vertical — literally.
Buildings vs. Rock Faces: A Different Beast Entirely
Climbing a skyscraper presents unique challenges that even Yosemite’s El Capitan can’t match.
Buildings are steeper than most rock faces. Most rock faces, even the ones that look vertical, aren’t actually vertical, or they’re not vertical for the whole way — whereas the building is vertical the whole way, so it’s cool.
That observation from Honnold himself, shared with Netflix’s Tudum, reveals just how demanding this climb will be. Glass and steel don’t offer the friction of granite.
Colorado climber Noah Kane explained the precarious nature of trusting slick building materials to Slate, noting moments when even experienced urban climbers like Alain Robert — the “French Spider-Man” who climbed Taipei 101 with ropes in 2004 — have felt their feet slip.
There are a couple clips of Alain Robert slipping on a building. He doesn’t fall, but his foot slips off the glass, and his heart flutters for a second.
Repetition Creates Its Own Danger
Natural rock formations vary constantly, keeping climbers mentally engaged. Buildings? Not so much.
Taipei 101’s architectural uniformity means Honnold will execute identical movements repeatedly over 101 floors. While predictability might sound safer, it introduces serious physical fatigue.
It’s not like you’re going to forget one of the key footholds or something, whereas on rock faces sometimes it’s hard to remember exactly how to climb something. On a building, you know how to climb it, but it’s physically more taxing because you’re doing the same thing over and over, so your muscles get tired.
Eight Bamboo “Boxes” of Pure Intensity
The skyscraper’s middle section — 64 floors designed to resemble stacked bamboo segments — will test Honnold most severely.
Each eight-story box tapers outward, creating overhangs that pitch 10 to 15 degrees past vertical. That’s essentially climbing while leaning backward.
This means you do quite a hard effort for almost 100 feet and then there’s a balcony, and then you do hard effort for 100 feet and there’s a balcony. The boxes are definitely the most physically demanding part.
Between each box section, balconies offer brief respites before the next grueling segment begins.
Safety Measures (Sort Of)
While Honnold won’t wear safety equipment himself, the production includes contingencies:
- Communication systems allowing producer James Smith to stay in contact with Honnold throughout
- Camera operators suspended on ropes positioned near Honnold during the climb
- Multiple exit hatches built into the route for emergency bailouts
- Ten-second broadcast delay in case disaster strikes
- Weather-dependent clearance to prevent rain-slicked conditions
Smith emphasized to the Associated Press that camera operators are familiar with Honnold’s abilities and will monitor him closely.
These people all know Alex. They trust Alex. They’re going to be close to him throughout the whole climb. They’re going to get us kind of amazing shots, but they’re also there just to keep an eye on him, and if there’s any problems, they can kind of help.
Still, make no mistake: Honnold will be completely unprotected from a fatal fall.
Why Risk Everything for a Building?
Honnold’s motivations blend opportunity, curiosity, and that rare quality that’s made him legendary.
Getting permission to free solo a major skyscraper is extraordinarily rare. When asked by Tudum why he’d attempt Taipei 101, his initial response was characteristically simple:
Why not?
But he elaborated further in an interview with the New York Times, revealing something deeper:
My hope is that people watching it will at least see the joy in it. Like when you’re a kid and look around and think, It’d be amazing to climb up there. As an adult, that gets hammered out of you. “Why would you do that? That’s dangerous. Do you have insurance?” You know, all that type of stuff. But there’s something to be said for maintaining that childlike joy of just looking at it, like, ‘That is amazing. I want to do that.’
Money isn’t driving this decision. According to the Times, Honnold will receive mid-six figures for the climb, but he insists he’d do it without payment.
Family Calculus: Marriage, Fatherhood, and Mortality
Perhaps the most gut-wrenching aspect of Honnold’s continued free soloing is watching from his family’s perspective.
His wife Sanni McCandless — herself a climber — married him in 2020 with full knowledge of what she was signing up for. Their relationship’s tension around his death-defying pursuits formed Free Solo’s emotional core.
Now they have two daughters under four: Alice and June. Has fatherhood changed Honnold’s risk assessment?
Honestly, I don’t think the calculus has changed that much. Because 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’m still doing my very best to not die.
His remarks to the Times about his young daughters were shockingly pragmatic — almost clinical in their detachment.
I mean, baby Alice wouldn’t remember. Baby June probably wouldn’t remember. She’ll be 4 in another month. It’d be felt, and obviously it’d be super hard for Sanni, but they’d be well provided for. I don’t feel like I’d be leaving them in the lurch. They wouldn’t even necessarily be traumatized their whole lives.
Honnold noted that McCandless worries less about the climbing itself than about public scrutiny and the spectacle surrounding it.
A Career Built on the Impossible
Taipei 101 joins an already legendary list of Honnold’s accomplishments:
- El Capitan’s Freerider route — immortalized in Free Solo
- Half Dome’s Regular Northwest Face — another massive Yosemite wall
- Moonlight Buttress in Zion — long and technically demanding
- The Phoenix crack climb — notoriously difficult
- Synthetic Happiness in Red Rock — famous for treacherously thin holds
- First traverse of Patagonia’s Fitz Roy massif — covering seven distinct peaks
What Makes This Different
While Alain Robert has climbed over 100 buildings worldwide, no one has ever free soloed Taipei 101. Robert used ropes when he scaled it in 2004, though Taiwan’s government mandated that safety measure.
More significantly, no one has ever livestreamed such an attempt. The real-time nature of Skyscraper Live adds unprecedented pressure and spectacle.
History will be made Friday regardless of outcome — either as triumph or tragedy broadcast to millions.
Characteristically, Honnold doesn’t sound particularly concerned. Speaking on Robert’s climbing podcast, he downplayed the challenge:
I don’t think it’ll be that extreme. We’ll see. I think it’s the perfect sweet spot where it’s hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb.
For everyone else watching? Edge-of-your-seat doesn’t begin to describe it.