American climber Alex Honnold successfully scaled a Taiwan skyscraper without a rope, harness or safety equipment.
The building, named Taipei 101 for the number of its floors, is 508m (1,667ft) tall, made of steel, glass and concrete and is designed to resemble a stick of bamboo.
Honnold is renowned for being the first person to climb El Capitan without ropes or safety gear. The 915m (3,000 foot) granite cliff is in California’s Yosemite national park.
The climb was originally set to take place on Saturday but was delayed by wet weather. His ascent in Taiwan’s capital was streamed live on Netflix, which said there was a delay on the live feed should the worst happen.
“We’ll cut away,” Netflix executive Jeff Gaspin told Variety magazine in the run-up to the event. “Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen.”
Honnold completed the climb in one hour and 31 minutes on Sunday – and celebrated the achievement with one word: “Sick.”
His time more than halves the record of the only other person to scale the tower.
Alain Robert, a Frenchman who called himself “Spiderman”, made it to the top of Taipei 101 – at the time the world’s tallest building – in four hours. He did so with ropes and a harness.
Taiwan’s Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim congratulated Honnold, writing on X: “I admit I would probably feel sick, too, barely able to watch.”
Honnold was greeted at the top of the building by his wife, who expressed concern for the wind and heat as he climbed.
But there was another distraction during his ascent. As Honnold reached the 89th floor, fans cheered and waved, face to face but for the window with the man clinging to the building.
Video of the moment was shared by Honnold and Netflix on Instagram, showing the climber continuing undeterred.
Honnold has made many extreme climbs during his career. A documentary about his ascent of El Capitan, titled Free Solo, won an Academy Award.
By BBC News
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