When Alex Honnold reached the rounded, one-meter-wide top of Taipei 101 after about an hour and a half, he threw up his arms and waved to the thousands of cheering people who had watched his climb from the ground 508 meters below. The 40-year-old American climbed the facade of what was once the tallest building in the world “free solo”, meaning alone and without any security. When he reached the top he exclaimed, “Sick!”
Criticism of live broadcast
While Honnold used the English word more in the sense of “crazy” or “cool”, the project’s critics would probably translate it as “sick”. In the run-up to the project in Taiwan, there was particular discussion about the fact that Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service with around 30 million subscribers, was broadcasting the potentially deadly climb live.
Media ethicist Claudia Paganini told DW Netflix of promoting “voyeuristic dynamics” and consciously using risk to increase reach and financial profit. The scientist from the University of Innsbruck also warned of a possible copycat effect. Children and young people may think that risky behavior is completely normal, says Paganini.
“Not much different than what I usually do”
Honnold, who is one of the best rock climbers in the world, couldn’t understand the excitement. In his own words, he had simply fulfilled a dream. He applied to be allowed to climb Taipei 101 more than ten years ago, said the father of two small daughters, who hugged his wife immediately after his success on one of the upper floors.
Due to rain, the project was canceled on Saturday for safety reasons and postponed for 24 hours. Honnold had prepared specifically for the facade climbing for two and a half months. “People look at the project and say: This is risky or dangerous. But for me it’s not that different from what I usually do,” said the extreme climber.
High fee
During his climbing career, Honnold often walked the fine line between life and death. In 2017, he was the first person to climb the 900 meter high granite wall of the legendary El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the USA without rope protection in just four hours – on the extremely challenging “Freerider” route, which was opened in 1995 by the top German climber Alexander Huber.
The documentary “Free Solo” about Honnold’s rise won an Oscar in 2019 and reached an audience of millions in cinemas and later via streaming services.
Honnold received a mid-six-figure dollar amount from Netflix for the event on Taipei 101, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources. The climber himself did not mention any amount to the US daily newspaper, but only spoke of an “embarrassingly high amount”. But he would climb the skyscraper for free, said Honnold.
Taiwan’s President is happy about the PR effect
It wasn’t the first time someone had climbed the facade of Taipei 101. The French free climber Alain Robert had already done this at Christmas 2004. Contrary to his usual habits, the “French Spiderman”, as he calls himself, was secured from above with a rope during this facade climbing and was traveling completely legally. The Taiwanese government hired him for this campaign to promote the then new skyscraper.
This time too, the government was pleased with the PR effect for the island state. “My congratulations to Alex (Honnold – editor’s note) on this remarkable achievement and my heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked behind the scenes,” wrote Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on the X platform. “Today the world saw not only (Taipei) 101, but also the spirit and beauty of Taiwan.”
