"There has never been a television event quite like Skyscraper Live, which sounds like the riskiest thing anyone has ever attempted in the medium: Sui generis climber Alex Honnold climbing up the Taipei 101 skyscraper, in his customary free-solo style, with no ropes or other safety gear to catch him if he falls - there's one really obvious way this could go wrong, and it is horrifying to think about."
"Many dangerous sports exist (football, MMA, ski jumping), but they're TV mainstays, so there's infrastructure for what happens if a competitor gets horrendously injured: medics to send to the athlete's side, ads to cut away to. What happens if Honnold careens off the skyscraper? There's no contingency plan there. Even just writing about it is giving me a stomachache. However: If there's one person who could do this kind of climb in his sleep, well, it's Honnold."
"The 2018 documentary that introduced Honnold to the mainstream was produced by a crew who were largely, like co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, also climbers and friends of Honnold's, adding an extra layer of intimacy and concern to the work. Honnold's challenge for himself felt impossible: be the first person to free solo the wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park."
Alex Honnold plans to free-solo climb Taipei 101 on January 23 with Netflix livestreaming the ascent. The climb will be done in his customary free-solo style with no ropes, harnesses, or safety gear, leaving no contingency if a fall occurs and creating an unprecedented television risk. Other dangerous sports have medical teams and broadcast plans for catastrophic injuries, but a rope-free skyscraper ascent lacks comparable infrastructure. Honnold is an icon with decades of experience in roped and rope-free ascents and generally attempts only climbs he trusts he can safely complete. The 2018 documentary about his El Capitan Freerider free solo was filmed largely by climber friends, adding intimacy and concern.
Read at Vulture
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