00:00Alex Honold made history Sunday in front of thousands of spectators who gathered to see
00:10the legendary American free climber scale Taiwan's tallest building, all without protective gear or
00:16robes. Crowds piled into Taipei's eastern Shin'i district in early hours, arching their necks to
00:25catch a glimpse at Honold. I see him. You see him? Yes. That's so cool. Good luck and don't fall.
00:35I saw a person who was walking, and he was very brave. We were very worried about him, but he was very
00:42confident today. I think that if he was going to be able to do it, he would not be able to do it.
00:50I really want to support Alex, but honestly, just being down here, even though we're not the ones
00:55climbing, I guarantee all of us could feel the same. Definitely really nervous, but overall,
00:59it was really fun to see.
01:01Vifrang cheered and fretted over Honold, who for about a decade has been the world's most famous living
01:10climber. Alex Honold first caught the public's imagination in 2017 when he became the first
01:17person in history to scale Yosemite National Park's El Capitan wall without ropes or safety equipment,
01:24a style of climbing known as free soloing. Today, he's adding another epic climb to his record,
01:31scaling to the top of that building behind me, Taipei 101, Taiwan's tallest skyscraper.
01:37The end of a half-kilometer climb, which he completed safely in about 90 minutes,
01:42could be seen from around the city and was streamed on Netflix around the world,
01:47putting Taiwan in the spotlight.
01:49This is so smart because it's, I mean, Taiwan is a fantastic country and it deserves so much more
01:56attention, not only the political stuff, you know, so this is so smart and I hope that all the world is now watching and seeing not only this beautiful tower,
02:07but also this beautiful country and they're beautiful people.
02:14After the climb, Honold said he chose 101 based on the challenge it posed.
02:22You know, I first saw Taipei 101 over 10 years ago and was like, wow, that's incredible for climbing.
02:29That would be amazing. But at the time didn't get the opportunity to actually climb it.
02:34And, and, you know, at the time I thought about climbing it without permission, you know, don't tell anybody, you know, but I was kind of like, oh, I know I can do it and it would be amazing.
02:41Like maybe I should, but then out of respect for the building and respect for all the people on the team who had allowed me access to look at, I was like, well, obviously I'm not going to poach this.
02:50Like I'm going to, you know, respect the people and just see if it ever comes together.
02:56After years of planning, months of buildup and a single day delay due to weather, Honold's plan finally came together on Sunday morning in Taipei in front of thousands of omnibus.
03:07Alex Chen, Klein-Long, Sandy Chee and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.
