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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

#141

Post by defrost »

SolubleSnake wrote: post #140

I'm going to be controversial and say that this is an interesting spectacle but it is not even remotely comparable to the difficulty of what was going on in Free Solo. This is a circus trick by comparison to that. For example I think a lot of 'good' climbers with several multi pitch climbs behind them could do this building fairly comfortably with ropes and really the only thing interesting about this is he did it wi…

It's not contraversial at all - buildings are extremely predictable (

to a point, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46750654 and consider that the initial overhang pass failed due to not finding an open bottomed window cleaning track to slot into, they backed up, tried another spar, and success )

this was an exercise of focus, indifference to exposure, and fitness to complete the 1,660 odd feet of ascent.

> he did it without safety equipment which is frankly just a bit daft.

People vary a lot, I had spent a few years climbing before someone pointed out that you could use ropes and protection .. indoor climbing gyms were fun for a while but never really became a thing of great interest for myself.

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

#142

Post by magicalhippo »

ahussain wrote: post #122
kqr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a lot of this is habituation due to repeated practise. As long as one climbs well within one's abilities, the actual level of danger is comparatively low. But the fear is still there and needs to be trained away.

They also did an MRI scan on Honnold and found that he doesn't have the usual fear response. It's not clear if this was trained away, or if it's something innate. https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...

I recall reading about a certain species of birds where, to impress the females, the males dives to the ground. The closer to the ground before they pull out of the dive the more impressive.

The scientist found there was a gene encoding how daring a bird would be, mostly clustered in two groups IIRC. But there was a rare variant which made them much more fearless, causing them to go much lower than the others.

However they only found birds with one copy of that variation. Turned out if a bird inherited the variant from both parents, they never pulled out of the dive and smacked into the ground, killing the bird.

These crazy free solo climbs and similar reminds me of those birds.

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

#143

Post by aequitas »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #75

I need to share a video [0] which helped contextualize Alex Honnold for me by contrasting him with another climber I've watched for years: Magnus Midtbo. In this video they're solo climbing a fairly simple and safe mountain, and Magnus is visibly stressed out while Alex calmly shouts encouragement all while recording. When watching Alex Honnold in Free Solo, I understood there was a exceptional aspect to him, but it…

Reminds me of that time I was taking climbing lessons in the Belgian Ardennes. Helmet on, in harness, hanging in the ropes, holding tight to not fall, we where climbing half way up the mountain, when a person out of nowhere ask if he can pass and just flew up the key section of the route. It was just a local, casual clothes, no harness, no helmet, no rope, maybe not even proper climbing shoes but I can't recall that. Just casually climbing the mountain like he was on a lunch stroll. Even now with years of experience I still don't have that confidence.

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

#144

Post by botacode »

adamredwoods wrote: post #125
botacode wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They kept most folks pretty far away, you needed a pass or to work in one of the offices to get really close. I was also terrified when ppl would engage with him directly lol

He needs the ultimate focus, there can be no mistakes. That's amazing you got to see the actual climb! Do you have any photos on social media?

Two good ones my gf took here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gb-cc_my-desperate-attempt-to...

The second one is from the inside of the observatory (89th floor). Folks with media passes were allowed to get closer so that's the crowd you see pictured. He's climbing in the background.

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

#145

Post by keepamovin »

clickety_clack wrote: post #115
rurban wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you forgot that architects count the wind forces in, not just the weight of pieces hanging onto the facade. Give them dynamic spikes of factor 10, so it looks more like 1000lbs. Only once you can get your engineers to agree on only factor 2, you can build much much lighter structures.

No I didn’t, you’re talking about big sheets of stuff, which probably won’t have anything to hold onto on it. I’m talking about the fiddly little bits that he’s likely to be holding onto. A little bit of flashing around a window has a wind load approaching zero.

you're not wrong, but i lived in Taiwan a while back for a number of years and things are built different there. it's not something you would necessarily notice unless you live there for a while, but once you start seeing it, it's hard to unsee.

the walls are thicker. everything is reinforced. external structures are bolted more securely. why is this a thing? taiphoons and earthquakes, is why.

if you like solid construction, there's plenty of it in taiwan. also, 101 is a flagship building. an item falling from the facade would kill someone or be a huge embarassment. this is not something they would let happen. just some local context fyi. that said, i wouldn't trust my life to those external structures either, but you do see alex testing as he goes.

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

#146

Post by electroly »

parthdesai wrote: post #116
e40 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the impression I got: he doesn’t feel fear like the rest of us.

That’s not true, he has debunked that. It’s due to repeated practice and his confidence in his skill set that he doesn’t feel fear under those conditions

How do I square "he has debunked that" with the article about his brain fMRI and the results about his amygdala, linked above in this subthread? It's full of direct quotes from both Honnold and the doctors. Where did he debunk it... and how? He's got a more accurate analysis than the fMRI? Do you have a link?

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

#147

Post by parthdesai »

electroly wrote: post #146
parthdesai wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not true, he has debunked that. It’s due to repeated practice and his confidence in his skill set that he doesn’t feel fear under those conditions

How do I square "he has debunked that" with the article about his brain fMRI and the results about his amygdala, linked above in this subthread? It's full of direct quotes from both Honnold and the doctors. Where did he debunk it... and how? He's got a more accurate analysis than the fMRI? Do you have a link?

From the source himself: https://youtube.com/shorts/mEHssB6GEPw

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

#148

Post by WithinReason »

electroly wrote: post #146
parthdesai wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not true, he has debunked that. It’s due to repeated practice and his confidence in his skill set that he doesn’t feel fear under those conditions

How do I square "he has debunked that" with the article about his brain fMRI and the results about his amygdala, linked above in this subthread? It's full of direct quotes from both Honnold and the doctors. Where did he debunk it... and how? He's got a more accurate analysis than the fMRI? Do you have a link?

There is no contradiction

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

#149

Post by iamcreasy »

dangus wrote: post #113
iamcreasy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alex Honnold: No free soloist ever died doing anything cutting edge. Nobody died doing something really hard. A handful people died doing things that are easy. Most soloist died in different types of accidents...base jumping, rogue wave. Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9WWUNDb_S0o

Factually inaccurate, the Wikipedia page for free solo climbing has an entire section on prominent free solo climber deaths. In my view this guy is pretty irresponsible especially for promoting a “sport” that is unnecessarily dangerous in the most preventable way imaginable. A bunch of kids and stupid adults watched that live stream and a non-zero amount of them now think they can try the same thing without anywhere…

The keyword is ’cutting edge’.

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

#150

Post by keepamovin »

botacode wrote: post #144
adamredwoods wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He needs the ultimate focus, there can be no mistakes. That's amazing you got to see the actual climb! Do you have any photos on social media?

Two good ones my gf took here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gb-cc_my-desperate-attempt-to... The second one is from the inside of the observatory (89th floor). Folks with media passes were allowed to get closer so that's the crowd you see pictured. He's climbing in the background.

You can get a sense of his feelings about this how he talks with his wife at the summit afterwards. He says something like "There were lots of people taking pictures and waving. I was chill", indicating he felt he had done well in a situation he had anticipated may have been challenging. THey'd likely discussed this extensively before.

Also, previously through the climb he makes efforts to be deliberate and chooses to interact positively with some of the people. Waving, offering a hand on glass for a high five, making a few jokes at the fans' expense over the headpiece "I offered him a high five. He was too busy on his phone. Kids these days"

My feeling about all this is the presence of many people was something he had rehearsed a lot and decided he was going to stay relaxed and positive about, and that's what he did.

He don't spook easy.

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