Name: Alex Honnold Free-Solos Taipei 101 in Front of Thousands of Spectators | TaiwanPlus News
Uploaded: 2026-01-25T14:06:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 17 s
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Past simple

Alex Honnold made history Sunday in front of thousands of spectators,

The superlative

who gathered to see the legendary American free climber scale Taiwan's tallest building,

Crowds piled into Taipei's eastern Xinyi District in the early hours,

arching their necks to catch a glimpse of Honnold.

but honestly, just being down here—even though we're not the ones climbing—

I guarantee all of us could feel the same.

The crowd cheered and fretted over Honnold, who for about a decade has been the world's most famous living climber.

Alex Honnold first caught the public's imagination in 2017, when he became the first person in history to scale Yosemite National Park's El Capitan wall

without ropes or standard safety equipment—a style of climbing known as free soloing.

Today, he's adding another epic climb to his record, scaling to the top of that building behind me.

The end of a half-kilometer climb, which he completed safely in about 90 minutes,

could be seen from around the city and was streamed on Netflix around the world,

This is so smart because, I mean, Taiwan is a fantastic country, and it deserves so much more attention—

So this is so smart, and I hope that the whole world is now watching and seeing not only this beautiful tower,

but also this beautiful country and its beautiful people.

After the climb, Honnold said he chose Taipei 101 based on the challenge it posed.

You know, I first saw Taipei 101 over 10 years ago and was like,

"Wow, that's incredible for climbing. That would be amazing."

But at the time, I didn't get the opportunity to actually climb it.

And at the time, I even thought about climbing it without permission.

But I was kind of like, I know I can do it, and it would be amazing—maybe I should.

But then, out of respect for the building and for all the people on the team who allowed me access to look at it,

I was like, well, obviously I'm not going to poach this.

I'm going to respect the people and just see if it ever comes together.

After years of planning, months of buildup,

Honnold's plan finally came together Sunday morning in Taipei, in front of thousands of onlookers.

Alex Chen, Klein Wang, Sandy Chi, and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.

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Alex Honnold Free-Solos Taipei 101 in Front of Thousands of Spectators | TaiwanPlus News

stuff

incredible

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opportunity