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Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

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Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#31

Post by Insanity »

komali2 wrote: post #14
prein wrote: post #11

I know nothing about climbing. beyond the straight flex of "I could die if I make a mistake", is there a point to doing this without safety equipment?

He's spoken about it extensively in interviews. Watch his El Capitan movie or recent interviews before this climb. He just finds it very peaceful and thrilling. "Just him and the climb" kind of language. Also I suppose clout has to be involved: only person to free solo El Capitan, as far as I know the only person to climb Taipei 101 let alone free solo (did the spiderman guy ever make it or was he arrested?)

I guess watching the film ('free solo' is the one you mention) is the lowest effort way of getting his perspective and I recommend the film.

For a deeper dive, the book "Alone on the wall" is a good read and I recommend it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36531127-alone-on-the-wa..., although that said the book might be less appealing to someone who 'knows nothing about climbing' and is more of a time investment than the short documentary :)

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#34

Post by Insanity »

hiddencost wrote: post #20
UltraSane wrote: post #13

This is a very irresponsible thing to do when you have children.

Yeah I hope he made enough money to stop.

I'm not saying money wasn't a factor in his decision to do this for a livestream, but it clearly wouldn't be the only factor and I doubt that would make him stop. (He free solo'd before, without cameras, although not this building).

For people like Alex, it's much more about the thrill, the experience, and 'proving' themselves than it is about money.

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#35

Post by yourapostasy »

shimman wrote: post #28
mvdtnz wrote: post #5

Very impressive feat, no doubt about it. But the commentary on the Netflix broadcast ruined the spectator experience completely. It was utterly unbearable.

Honestly surprised that there was no audio option to disable the commentators.

With the Netflix infrastructure, I'm surprised they broadcast it so conventionally. Different channels running at the same time (with the crowd at the bottom, with the crowds as he passed each floor, with his wife watching, with pro climbers talking technical climbing stuff with simultaneous 8K online illustrating graphics, etc.), different audio tracks (with commentators, with crowd at bottom only, etc.*). Alex Honnold was paid only $500K for the event, so maybe there simply wasn't a lot of money allocated to the project to get fancy with the live broadcast.

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#36

Post by EnPissant »

torlok wrote: post #33

I thought he had freakishly large hands before, but that picture of him on the top with his hands in the air makes him look like the lawyer uncle from Always Sunny. He's built for free solo.

You need to be specific! There are 2 lawyers with completely opposite hand sizes.

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#38

Post by [deleted] »

EnPissant wrote: post #36
torlok wrote: post #33

I thought he had freakishly large hands before, but that picture of him on the top with his hands in the air makes him look like the lawyer uncle from Always Sunny. He's built for free solo.

You need to be specific! There are 2 lawyers with completely opposite hand sizes.

[deleted]

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#39

Post by komali2 »

squigz wrote: post #25
komali2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Taipei tourism bureau disagrees. Many here as well. The more eyes on Taiwan, the better. I'm grateful Alex was willing to risk his life for this spectacle, now potentially millions will have at least some concept of Taipei and Taiwan in their minds.

That a government would be willing to risk this for publicity isn't really changing my mind. "Come to Taiwan; you may or may not watch someone plummet to their death while here" doesn't appeal to me, personally anyway. Anyway that guy that did it with safety equipment a few years back made the rounds in the news too, so not sure this was necessary in that regard.

C'mon, didn't some guy do a skydive from nearly outer space? Do you criticize the country he landed in? Or red bull for sponsoring it or the many other extreme sports?

Injury and death happens in rock climbing even when tethered. Not often but it does happen, that's the nature of the sport and it's the same as BMX, skateboarding, motocross, any kind of racing.

It's also the same as just living - go look up Taiwan traffic deaths. There's so much more dangerous things happening here and wherever you live, it just seems silly to criticize someone for doing an extreme sport publicly.

There's like one injury per NFL game ffs...

Re: Alex Honnold completes Taipei 101 skyscraper climb without ropes or safety net

#40

Post by abrookewood »

komali2 wrote: post #14
prein wrote: post #11

I know nothing about climbing. beyond the straight flex of "I could die if I make a mistake", is there a point to doing this without safety equipment?

He's spoken about it extensively in interviews. Watch his El Capitan movie or recent interviews before this climb. He just finds it very peaceful and thrilling. "Just him and the climb" kind of language. Also I suppose clout has to be involved: only person to free solo El Capitan, as far as I know the only person to climb Taipei 101 let alone free solo (did the spiderman guy ever make it or was he arrested?)

Second person to climb it (Spidey got there first), but only one to free solo it.
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