Editor’s Note: Skyscraper Live was originally scheduled to air on January 23. Due to weather conditions, the live event is postponed, and will now stream on Saturday, January 24 at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT.
Ahead of his historic attempt to climb Taipei 101 — one of the tallest buildings on Earth — for Skyscraper Live, legendary climber Alex Honnold broke down exactly what viewers should watch for during the live two-hour global event streaming live on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.
Honnold is attempting to become the first person ever to climb the building’s 101 floors —1,667 feet of glass, steel, and concrete — completely free solo, without ropes or safety nets.
The star of the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo has never climbed live for a worldwide audience, so he pointed out the moments that could define the ascent, from brutal “bamboo boxes” to the mental unknowns that come with stepping onto entirely new terrain.
Honnold told Tudum that the hardest part of the climb will be what he calls the “bamboo boxes,” eight identical segments stacked in the middle of the building, representing 64 floors.
“They overhang, I don’t know, 10 or 15 degrees — it’s kind of steep — and then there’s a balcony every eight floors,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it actually feels like a climbing pitch, which is the way climbers differentiate segments of a climb.”
“This means you do quite a hard effort for almost 100 feet and then there’s a balcony, and then you do [another] hard effort for 100 feet and there’s a balcony,” Honnold continued. “So, in a lot of ways, that’s what rock climbing feels like, where you climb for a certain rope length and then you stop. The boxes are definitely the most physically demanding part.”
Among all the potential variables during Skyscraper Live — such as weather, surface conditions, or fatigue — the element that’s most uncertain to Honnold is his psychological state, simply because he has never climbed a building before.
“I’m sure I’ll feel a little nervous at the bottom, just because it’s something totally new and I don’t know how it’s going to feel,” he said. “I’ve spent 30 years climbing rock faces; this is going to be my first big handmade structure, so I’m sure it’ll feel a little different.”
Although Honnold believes ascending Taipei 101 is less intimidating than some of the big-rock free solos he has climbed, the overall physicality of 101 floors is a major factor to watch.
“The challenge comes more from the overall physicality of it — just the fatigue that builds over the course of the building — and that’s slightly harder to anticipate,” he said. “In some ways, it’s slightly harder. Basically, I don’t know how it’s going to feel, so it’s more of an unknown.”
During a live climb of this scale — and with variables such as weather — Honnold’s plan will no doubt need to be adjusted in real-time. To manage the unexpected, he has an internal protocol set.
“Typically, my self-talk just has to do with taking some deep breaths and calming down my body, because if something happens you typically have a sort of adrenaline response either way.”
Unlike prerecorded climbing documentaries like Free Solo, Skyscraper Live unfolds entirely in real time, so viewers will experience every moment of Honnold’s climb.
“I try to take some deep breaths, compose myself, take some time. There’s never any time pressure, so you can spend as long as you need just hanging in one space basically trying to compose yourself.”
Skyscraper Live streams live globally on Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET. For a deeper look at the thinking and preparation behind the historic climb, read Tudum’s Alex Honnold Q&A before the climb.
