Rock climber Alex Honnold completes first-ever ropeless ascent of Taipei 101 skyscraper

In front of a live audience, rock climber Alex Honnold completed the first-ever ropeless ascent of Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper. One wrong move would have almost certainly resulted in grave injury or instant death.

But for Honnold, whose decades-long career includes scaling some of the world's tallest heights — including his ropeless ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan in the Oscar-winning film “Free Solo” — it was just another climb.

Speaking with Reuters from Los Angeles a week after Netflix’s “Skyscraper Live” broadcast, Honnold reflects on the pressures of performing for a live audience, climbing’s rising standards, and how long he plans to keep pushing the limits of what’s possible.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You recently ascended Taipei 101 without safety gear in one hour and 31 minutes. A week on, what’s stayed with you most about the experience?

I need more time, more perspective. In a way — and this is sort of classic of all climbing experiences — I remember all the prep, all the time with my friends ahead of time, being up on the wall, the scouting, the stress around the weather, basically the whole expedition component of it.

The actual 90 minutes or so that I was on the wall climbing, I don't totally — I mean, I remember that a bit. I remember appreciating the view and being really surprised by the number of people down on the ground. Seeing all those spectators live was an experience for me. But in general, it's the whole experience surrounding the climb and not so much the climb itself that I remember.

I remember I was very struck by the weather. It was just so perfect that day. All the other days were socked in and rainy and then that day was perfect and blue and crisp and beautiful. And it made the whole thing feel way better.

The decision to postpone the climb because of the weather reminded me of a similar call you made in “Free Solo” to turn back early in a free solo attempt. How did you weigh the decision given the expectations around the live broadcast?

Obviously, rain on steel and glass is going to be really slippery. We were kind of like, "Well how slippery is it? Maybe it's OK." But then one of the prep days it was raining and I tried to climb and it was impossible. But in a way, it was helpful because it gave a very clear answer. There wasn't a gray area where maybe if it's only raining a little bit it's OK. It was out of the question. That simplified the decision-making and made it easier.

“Skyscraper Live” attracted 6.2 million viewers, according to Netflix. Whose idea was it to broadcast the climb in real time? Did the presence of a live audience change how you prepared for or experienced it?

This whole project had almost come together in 2013 for a different live TV event that had never quite materialized. The idea of climbing a skyscraper had always been this live climbing (event) because if you're going to do a live free soloing event, it's almost better on a building because it's really hard to do live things in the wilderness. There's no service, there's no fiber lines and all that kind of stuff.

To me, it doesn't make any difference (whether it's live or not) because the actual experience of climbing the building is the same whether people watch it two months from now or if they watch it live in the moment. In a lot of ways, it's actually better live because normally when you do a climbing documentary, you do the climb and then you go back, and you film close-ups and tights and take pictures; you do all this other work afterward. And with a live event, you just do the climb and then you go home. It's way better, it’s easier, it’s faster. But the actual experience for me is basically the same where I’m climbing on a wall with my friends next to me filming.

Do you see live, high‑stakes ascents becoming a bigger part of climbing culture? Would you take on something like this again?

I mean, I had a great time. I would totally do something like this again if given the opportunity or if somebody asked me to. That said, I really doubt that this will become a bigger part of climbing culture — partially because climbing is typically in the remote outdoors. In the '80s and '90s, a couple of different climbers did things like this — even on buildings and various sorts of climbing spectacles. So I don’t think it’s unprecedented, but I doubt it’s going to be the next big thing. I think it’s just a cool thing that happens every decade or two.

You have a new travel series, "Get a Little Out There with Alex Honnold," premiering this month. How different is it from the intensity of projects like “Free Solo” and “Skyscraper Live”?

Oh, it's so different. I mean, a travel show is all about exploration and adventure and meeting interesting people. It was a project that for me was super fun to do. The throughline through these things is that it’s a project that I get to work on where I’m like, oh this is so cool, it’s different, I’m learning something, it’s interesting. It's (set in) my home state (of Nevada), but I got to see all these cool things that I don't normally see, have good climbing adventures, (and) meet interesting people around the state.

Watching "Free Solo" and "Skyscraper Live,” you realize just how easy it is for viewers to fixate on their own fears of the risk that you're taking on rather than necessarily focusing on the craft and joy of climbing. Do you feel that shapes how people relate to your work?

Totally. A big part of the whole experience around skyscrapers is that it's so far removed from people's normal experience. Like, it's totally normal to watch an elite performer do the thing that they've trained their whole life for. And yet, for whatever reason, nobody ever sees that in climbing. So they're like, "That's crazy! Why would you do that?" And you're kind of like, well, dude, you watch boxing every weekend. It's the same thing where someone who's trained their whole life is doing something that kind of seems hardcore if you don't know much about it. Or like, football — if you never knew anything about it, you'd be like, "Oh my God, that poor guy just got hit so hard! That's insane!”

What most excites you about the trajectory climbing has taken as a sport? Are there any young climbers whose work excites you?

The physical ability of climbers is way higher than it was in the past. The standard is rising really quickly and that allows people to do things that I couldn't imagine.

Two days ago, I was climbing at this (a rock-climbing cliff) near my house and saw this young climber named Tyler Thompson. He had a couple of days of climbing at the cliff that were literally like nothing I've ever seen. It was like totally next level. I was like, “Wow, is this the way that people climb nowadays? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?” It's like a completely different standard. So, I think the big story in climbing right now is seeing this next-level physical performance. How and when that'll translate into big adventures — like climbing skyscrapers, climbing big walls, soloing, speed climbing, all these other sorts of things that I've always been kind of into — we'll see when those things start to follow.

What’s at the top of your climbing bucket list?

I have tons of things that I'd like to climb personally. I actually have a separate bucket list of places that I want to go with my family once the kids are just a little bit older because right now I have two small girls. Once they're a few years older and can actually remember things and are slightly less challenging to travel with, there are a lot of places that I'd love to take them. There's a lot of climbing in Southeast Asia that I've never climbed in that I think would be an amazing family experience (and) a great opportunity for the kids to see a totally different part of the world.

And so now I have this bucket list of climbing destinations where I want to travel with the family and then specific climbs that I'd like to do as an individual just to like do something that challenges me. But none of them are that important, you know? None of them really matter. They just matter to me because I want to challenge myself.

You’ve spoken before about how your approach has evolved as you’ve gotten older. At 40, how do you think about longevity in free soloing — and what does sustainable risk look like for you now?

I suspect that I'll lose the fire for it at some point. I just won't want to push that hard. I mean, there's a huge spectrum between easy free soloing and cutting-edge free soloing. Easy free soloing is sort of like scrambling mountain ridges and just climbing easy routes, and I'm sure I'll be doing that deep into old age. But I doubt that I'll be trying elite, cutting-edge free solos forever. 

Already I've lost a little bit of the fire just because I've been touring around western North America for 20 years as a professional climber and I've done most of the things that I'm really excited about. And so there's just a little bit less inspiration for that kind of stuff.

Beyond the risk and the stakes, what part of these climbs feels the most meaningful to you?

I mean, it's pretty freaking fun. Questions are always centered around risk and consequences and the extremeness of it. And that totally makes sense. But it's also tremendously fun to climb up the side of a building. In some ways it's like the little kid in me gets to live his dream. You spend your life as a little kid looking up at things and being like, "That would be so amazing!" And then to actually get to do some of that as an adult, that's so cool.

I think there's some real joy there that sometimes gets overlooked with all the like extreme, life or death, whatever. When you put all that aside, it's so cool.

The perspectives expressed in Culture Current are the subject’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Reuters News.

-Reporting by Yasmeen Serhan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker/Reuters