Rock Climber Alex Honnold Ambled Up 101-Story Skyscraper Mostly Listening to Tool
Over the weekend, professional free-climber and complete madlad Alex Honnold did the unthinkable and climbed all the way to the top of a 101-story skyscraper with no ropes or safety gear. And he did it un just over an hour and a half while listening to his favorite rock tunes, which apparently includes “mostly Tool.”
The death-defying spectacle took place just after 8 p.m. ET this past Saturday for a special live event on Netflix dubbed “Skyscraper Live”. During the event, he climbed Taipei, Taiwan’s Taipei 101, a 1,667-foot skyscraper and the 11th tallest urban structure in the world. In an interview with Variety just an hour after completing his feat, Honnold revealed that his soundtrack of choice was “rock music that I’ve liked my whole life.”
“It was mostly Tool. It’s a random playlist that I made, that I shared with production. I made it months ago while I was driving. I’ve been training to it a bunch.”
one of the big reasons he chose the music he did was so he could keep his pace. Without any climbing gear to speak of, he would have to rely on his sense of movement and scale to gauge his climbing pace.
“Each bamboo box had been taking me about five to six and a half minutes. I just know how long the songs are. So it gives you a sense of if you’re going fast or slow. But in this case, it all kept cutting out anyway, and I couldn’t really hear and I was kind of like, ‘Whatever. I’m just doing my thing.’”
That level of nonchalance in the face of certain death with one fuck up is insane. Dude climbed a massive structure with zero gear and lived to tell the tale. That’s damn impressive. You can check out some of the highlights in the video below.
