Alex Honnold is about to do something nobody has ever done before.
The legendary rock climber will attempt to scale Taiwan’s Taipei 101 skyscraper—all 1,667 feet of it—without ropes, harnesses, or safety nets.
And Netflix will stream the entire death-defying ascent live on Saturday, after weather postponed Friday’s scheduled climb.
It’s the same fearless approach Honnold used to conquer El Capitan in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, but this time, millions will watch in real-time as he risks everything on glass and steel.
Why Climbing Buildings Is Harder Than Rocks
Skyscrapers present unique challenges that natural rock formations don’t.
Buildings are completely vertical—no breaks, no variations in angle. Honnold explained the difference to Netflix’s Tudum:
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.
Glass and steel surfaces are slippery. Colorado climber Noah Kane recently told Slate that these materials create “the more cruxy moments of the medium.”
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.
Perhaps most challenging: buildings force climbers into endless repetition. Unlike natural formations where each section requires different techniques, skyscrapers demand identical movements hundreds of times over.
The Brutal Middle Section
Taipei 101’s 64 middle floors will test Honnold like nothing else.
These floors are designed to resemble bamboo boxes—eight stories per box, each tapering outward to create a challenging overhang. Honnold must navigate each overhang before reaching a balcony where he can briefly rest.
They overhang, I don’t know, 10 or 15 degrees — it’s kind of steep. 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.
That’s nearly 100 feet of overhanging climbing, repeated over and over, with muscles screaming from the identical movements.
Making History—Again
No climber has ever free soloed Taipei 101 before.
French urban climber Alain Robert—nicknamed the “French Spider-Man”—scaled it when it opened in 2004, but Taiwan’s government required him to use ropes. Before Honnold’s 2017 El Capitan ascent, nobody had free soloed that granite monolith either.
This will also mark the first time such a dangerous endeavor has been livestreamed globally.
Despite the magnitude, Honnold sounds remarkably calm. Speaking on Robert’s climbing podcast, he said:
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.
Safety Measures (Sort Of)
While Honnold won’t use safety equipment, the production team has implemented precautions.
- Communication system: Producer James Smith can talk with Honnold throughout
- Cameramen inside: Positioned at hatches and potential bail points
- High-angle operators: Four camera operators on ropes nearby
- 10-second broadcast delay: Allows Netflix to cut away if disaster strikes
Weather conditions must be perfect. Friday’s postponement came after moisture on the building made surfaces too dangerous.
Smith explained to Variety:
If there’s been a light shower and the building’s drying off, the temperature here is pretty good, there’s often a light breeze, so the building will dry relatively quickly. If it is deemed too wet, if there’s too much moisture on the building, we will probably delay to the next day.
Netflix’s Jeff Gaspin acknowledged the broadcast delay exists for worst-case scenarios: “We’ll cut away. We have a 10-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen.”
Why Take Such Risks?
When asked why he’s climbing Taipei 101, Honnold’s first response was simple:
Why not?
Beyond that quip, he’s cited opportunity—getting permission to climb buildings this large is incredibly rare—and novelty, having climbed massive natural walls but never man-made structures at this scale.
Perhaps most telling is what he told The New York Times about maintaining childlike wonder:
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 the motivator, Honnold insists—though he’s being paid in the mid-six figures, according to sources who spoke with The Times.
I would do it for free. If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing.
Family Concerns
Honnold married writer and climber Sanni McCandless in 2020. Her fear for his safety was central to Free Solo‘s emotional impact.
They now have two daughters—Alice and June, both under age four.
When The Times asked about his family, Honnold’s response was characteristically blunt:
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 assessment of what would happen to his daughters if tragedy struck was equally matter-of-fact:
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.
Still, Honnold noted McCandless is less concerned about the climb itself than “the spectacle” and “all the public commentary.”
A Legend’s Resume
Taipei 101 is just another addition to Honnold’s jaw-dropping list of accomplishments.
Beyond El Capitan, he’s free soloed:
- The Phoenix in Yosemite—notoriously difficult crack climbing
- Half Dome’s Regular Northwest Face—another massive Yosemite wall
- Moonlight Buttress in Zion—long and technically demanding
- Synthetic Happiness in Red Rock—known for thin, slippery holds
He’s also completed the first-ever traverse of Patagonia’s Fitz Roy massif, covering seven distinct peaks.
Saturday’s livestream on Netflix will add Skyscraper Live to that legendary resume—assuming everything goes according to plan.