Written by Lyle Weems, Staff Writer
Alex Honnold, an American climber, successfully scaled a Taiwan skyscraper on January 25, 2026 with no safety gear whatsoever.
Honnold chose to climb the Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest building standing at 508 meters (1667 ft) with 101 floors. Attracted to the building over a decade ago due to its iconic design, extreme height, and tiered design to allow for safer progression, he finally gained official permission to climb the structure. This bamboo inspired skyscraper proved to be a difficult climb with various obstacles, including free hang balconies, and corner structures called Dragons, in which Honnold chose to face nine out of the ten. There is a metal spire on top of the tower that he also climbed to reach the very tallest point of the building. He found that the main challenge of the climb was the endurance needed to climb such a tall structure and repeat the steps of all previous tiers. This task was completed in a shocking one hour and thirty-one minutes, bypassing all expectations, and setting a new impressive precedent for urban climbing.
Honnold is a very experienced athlete known for his free solo climbs. Most famously the rope-less climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan, which is an infamous 3,000 ft granite monolith in the park, and his climb there was the focus of an Oscar winning film, titled “Free Solo”. With a philosophy of acknowledging fear and then remaining calm and examining risks, he has become a global fascination.
The transition to urban climbing presented various changes to his career. Not only is the terrain completely different, but the spectacle becomes easier to cover. In fact, Netflix live-streamed the climb as an exclusive and thousands of people gathered to watch. With bustling crowds below and viewers knocking on the windows from within the building itself, the coverage was massive. Taiwan has also received incredible benefits from this journey as Taipei is now a recognized tourist destination, and the flood of viewers the day of the climb was incredible. Honnold’s feat hit the top of media charts overnight, and it is likely a new era in the popularization of urban climbing and risk-taking on public live-streamed television.