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

Post by iamcreasy » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:22 AM UTC

remus wrote: post #96

mykowebhn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if this is because El Capitan is a much more technically difficult climb and thus posing much more risk than Taipei 101.

Yes, Freerider (the route he climbed on El Capitan) is much harder than the climbing on Taipei 101. The style of climbing is also very important, some of the moves on Freerider are very insecure and hard to climb in a reliable way, whereas on Taipei the difficulty largely comes from doing the same moves over and over again which means your body gets tired in a specific ways. The climbing on Taipei was way more chill…

Post by iamcreasy » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:30 AM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #13

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

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #91

qnpnpmqppnp wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Statistically more danger than a free solo climber. While I don't have statistics on free solo death rate per climb compared to death per car trip, this is most likely very, very wrong. You should really stop throwing such strange wild claims..

Of all the thousands of times tens of thousands people climb, only 30 die per year. Of that 30, 30% are free solo deaths. Free solo climbing is incredibly dangerous, but the people who do it (usually) prepare extensively and train their whole lives. https://gitnux.org/rock-climbing-death-statistics/ This is in contradiction to the experience of driving, where any number of people on the road with you are untrained, u…

Post by andsoitis » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 1:49 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #104

jml7c5 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix has a stream with close-up cameras, as they were the ones who arranged the whole thing. Unfortunately the commentary and color grading are both terrible: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81987107 A YouTube search pulls up a stream filmed from the ground (a nearby building?) using a zoom lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzthkg2ti2Q

Netflix have absoluely no taste. Everything they make has unbearbly bland cinematography.

Post by rurban » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

clickety_clack wrote: post #108

I think anyone who’s ever worked in construction would balk at the idea of hanging your life on pieces of building facade. Except for the the pieces stopping people falling through the outside windows and walls themselves, most of the outside decorative stuff is only designed to hold itself onto the building and not much more. He’s potentially hanging his 200lbs on something that’s intended to hold 0lbs.