"The objective was to climb-without ropes, a harness, or a parachute-a sixty-nine-floor luxury apartment building in Jersey City, New Jersey, called the Urby. The building resembles "a rickety tower of Jenga blocks," as I wrote in the first of two dispatches from Honnold's 2018 Garden State adventure. "The edges are like the width of this fork," he told me, referring to the building's windowsills, which he'd balance upon."
""I have a vivid memory of passing a couple people sleeping where my foot was literally eight inches from their head, just separated by the glass, and I'm trying not to drag it," Honnold told me recently, when I called him to discuss the free solo he'll be attempting today-weather permitting-of a hundred-and-one-story skyscraper in Taiwan known as Taipei 101."
Alex Honnold climbed a sixty-nine-floor Jersey City apartment building called the Urby without ropes, harness, or parachute. The Urby's windowsills are narrow; Honnold described them as "adequate, not great." A construction supervisor warned against grabbing HVAC units because of uncertain fastening. The most difficult aspect was the unexpectedly intimate view of residents, with Honnold's foot inches from sleeping people's heads separated only by glass. Honnold plans a free solo of Taipei 101, a hundred-and-one-story skyscraper in Taiwan; Taipei 101 is smoother to climb than the Urby. Taipei 101 is not as tall as El Capitan but would be the tallest building scaled without safety gear.
Read at The New Yorker
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