BURSTAlex Honnold will be in the spotlight again in early 2026. He will be free soloing, but this time, the objective is the tallest building in Taiwan – the Taipei 101. The skyscraper is 508 meters tall, consisting of 101 floors. When it opened in 2004, it was the tallest building in the world. It now ranks 11th, but remains an impressive, striking feature of Taipei. Honnold’s ascent will be live-streamed in a two-hour special on Netflix early next year. The program will be called Skyscraper Live.
Honnold’s interest in climbing the Taipei 101 can be traced back to 2012, well before his free solo of Freerider on El Cap and the release of “Free Solo”. He was originally supposed to solo the building in late 2013, which then got pushed back to 2014, and then ultimately never happened. You can learn more about these early Taipei 101 free solo plans here.
Taipei 101 is an interesting building from a climbing perspective. It starts with around 70 metres of “slab” up the building’s podium. The next part of the skyscraper is composed of a stack of eight eight-story sections. Each of these sections is slightly overhanging. Each section ends on a big ledge where the next overhanging section begins, with the entire building resembling a tiered pagoda or a stalk of bamboo.
Based on recent video footage with Honnold practicing on top-rope solo, it appears he’ll be climbing up one of the four aretes of the building. To complete the climb, he’ll have to ascend up hundreds of metres of slightly overhanging terrain, but he’ll get a rest every eight stories.
If you’re new to climbing, Honnold is one of the most accomplished trad climbers ever, with dozens of awe-inspiring free-solos, alpine first ascents, and hard trad climbs. In 2017, he free-soloed Freerider 5.13a on El Capitan, the first ever person to free-solo the gigantic Yosemite monolith. The feat was documented in the Academy Award-winning film Free Solo. To read more about some of Honnold’s biggest solos, visit here.
Alex Honnold TR Soloing Taipei 101
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