Alex Honnold talks to The Contending about how Netflix’s Skyscraper Live came together and how he trained to scale the tallest building in the world.
Was there ever a moment during his 90-minute Skyscraper Live event when free climber Alex Honnold doubted he could climb Taipei 101? Nope.
“Leaving the ground, I was obviously nervous,” said Honnold with a laugh. “I hope I don’t slip on the first move with thousands of people watching me. I hope I don’t totally botch this! But once I got going, I felt good.”
Honnold came fully prepared, having done training for months leading up to the ascent. The only thing he couldn’t account for was the weather, which delayed the initial climb, and even when they rescheduled, the wind was a factor.
“It got windier as I got higher. It was starting to get problematic. It’s not that dissimilar to climbing mountains where the higher you get, the more extreme the weather gets.”
Free-climbing the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, was something Honnold had thought about for a while, dating all the way back to 2013. Luckily, he says that it was much easier to get permission to climb a skyscraper in Taiwan versus the United States.
“It’s really hard to get permission and the opportunity, especially domestically,” said Honnold. “For whatever reason, buildings in the U.S. seem a lot more shy about liability. A lot of the buildings in Asia are like, ‘Come and climb for sure. If you fall, you die, who cares!’ But no, if I was given the opportunity, I would certainly climb other skyscrapers. We’ll see if anything comes together, but I hope it does because it was fun.”
I had a great conversation with Honnold about this Netflix live event, why it was a great getaway for him and his wife, and what it was like having hundreds of fans watch from the building as he climbed. Watch or listen below!
