Climber Alex Honnold climbs Taiwan's tallest skyscraper: for a good cause

©Timo Volz via Unsplash

Alex Honnold has succeeded. The American climber completed a solo ascent of Taipei 101, Taiwan's iconic 508-metre skyscraper. No ropes, no harnesses and no protection: his feat was followed live by hundreds of people at the foot of the building and broadcast on Netflix.

The event was broadcast live on Netflix, with a deliberate time-lag, so as to be able to intervene in the event of an accident. A detail that reveals the scale of the risk.

The ascent, which lasted around an hour and a half, was originally scheduled for the day before, but was postponed due to bad weather. Alex Honnold climbed the south-east face of the skyscraper, confronting a complex structure of glass, steel and irregular surfaces, a far cry from the natural rock faces to which the climber is accustomed. Upon reaching the top, he described the experience as "a wonderful way to admire Taipei": simple words for an anything but ordinary act.

The Taipei 101 skyscraper takes its name from its 101 storeys, and is distinguished by its central section made up of eight stacked modules, known as 'bamboo boxes'. These segments proved to be the most challenging part of the climb. The American climber used some of the balconies as resting points, interrupting a progression that demanded absolute precision and unfailing concentration.

Solo climbing remains controversial

At the age of 40, Alex Honnold is considered to be the world's reference in full solo climbing, an extreme discipline that dispenses with all safety systems. It's precisely for this reason that it's regularly the target of criticism within the climbing community, who see the risk of turning climbing into a spectacle in these feats, thus minimizing the perception of danger. In addition, Netflix's involvement has fuelled a debate on the spectacularization of risk.

Alex Honnold became a global figure in the wake of the 2019 Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, which chronicles his rope-free ascent from El Capitan to Yosemite. Before Taipei 101, he had never completed a full ascent of a skyscraper (...).

He himself admits that the urban setting, with the public below and the media spotlight, was one of the most unsettling aspects. Nevertheless, he took advantage of the visibility of the event to promote his charitable foundation, which is committed to installing solar panels in disadvantaged communities.

(©GreenMe.it 2026/Managing editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction/Picture: Timo Volz via Unsplash)