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Skyscraper Live: Alex Honnold vs. Taipei 101

Alex Honnold just free soloed Taipei 101.

1,667 feet of glass and steel. No ropes. No harness. He topped out in under 92 minutes, and I spent most of that time forgetting to breathe. I climb at my local gym on weekends but that context made it worse, not better. I know just enough to understand how wrong any single moment could go.

The Technical Beta: Steel vs. Granite

For those that are familiar with climbing, you know it's all about "reading the rock" - transforming a climb from a desperate struggle against gravity into a strategic, efficient, and successful process. But this? It's just the geometry of the architecture and the friction against metal and treated glass. It's like trying to scale a vertical mirror.

But Honnold did it, very gracefully at that. He broke the climb into three sections, and watching them unfold in sequence was watching a man translate a language no one else speaks.

  • The Slabs (0–100m): The opening is all Ruyi flared geometries - architectural flourishes he spent months re-contextualizing as edges. He'd pause on sections that looked completely blank, find that millimeter-thin gap, and float on to the next hold. It's like watching someone solve a high-stakes LEGO set where he had memory of the instructions.
  • The Bamboo Boxes (100–450m): The core of the climb, and the true test. Eight stacked sections that make up the midsection. Each box tilts outward at a 7-15° angle. He wasn't just going up; he was also fighting the gravity that was trying very hard to peel him off the wall on every single move for hundreds of meters. At the top of each box, the "Dragon" flares require massive core tension.
  • The Towers & Spire (450m+): By the time he hit the observation deck, the wind was audible on the stream - a reminder that it is not just a battle of the gravity but also a battle of the wind. Then, there's the spire - an exposed steel in the open sky, and precise moves that demand everything he has left. Then, quietly, he topped out. No fanfare. Just a man standing at the very top, overlooking Taipei.

"The challenge is the overall physicality. I don't know how it's going to feel until I'm on it."

  • Alex Honnold

A language only he speaks

Honnold's scale is incomprehensible. It's a masterclass in translation - taking the cold, alien geometry of a skyscraper and finding a way to make it legible.

I'll be back at the gym next weekend, probably falling off the same V4 I've been working on for almost a month. It's a completely different world, but after watching that, I think I get the "why" a little bit more. For now, I'm just happy to keep working on my own local sequences.

Catch you on the next build! 🚀