Upon reaching the top of Taipei 101 — without ropes, harnesses or safety nets — free climber Alex Honnold waved his arms down to the fans gathered half a kilometre below. “Sick,” he said to himself before taking out his phone for a selfie. “It’s very windy up here. But so cool.”
His gravity-defying feat was being streamed live on Netflix. The two-hour special Skyscraper: Live drew in millions of viewers around the world, although the feed carried a brief delay in case something went horribly wrong. One misplaced foot or unsecured hand would have meant certain death.
To ascend the building, the tallest in the world from when it opened in 2004 until 2009, the 40-year-old father of two conquered its eight stacked “bamboo boxes”, 11 “steel dragons” and 101 floors. Typically a rock climber, Honnold had to adapt to the slickness of the 508m tower of glass and steel. Some call it “buildering”.