Alain Robert: The French Spiderman
1/9/202643 min
Later this month, Alex will set out to climb the Taipei 101 skyscraper, but he certainly won’t be the first. For the last three decades, Alain Robert has been the living legend of the underground scene of climbing buildings. Arrested more than 170 times, his passion for buildings stemmed out of his passion for cutting edge free soloing. His tick list featured routes Alex wouldn’t dare to touch today.
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First 90 secondsFitz Cahall· Host0:01
Alex, it is January 2026. It's a big month for you. Um, how are you, uh, you know, most of us are, like, working off nursing hangovers and stuff like that to kick off the new year, but, uh, what are you doing in this new year?
Alex Honnold· Host0:14
[laughs] I am prepping to, uh, to free solo Taipei 101. [laughs] It's the giant skyscraper in Taiwan. I've been, uh, sort of in full training mode for the last month and a half, and, uh, pretty fired up.
Fitz Cahall· Host0:24
What does that even entail? Like, when you say that, you're like, "I'm soloing a skyscraper," like, what does that actually entail?
Alex Honnold· Host0:30
Well, it's same as soloing anything else. You walk up to the base, you hop onto the building- [laughs] ... and then you climb all the way to the top with no ropes, no gear, no margin for error. [laughs] You know, it's, um... Yeah, it's basically like soloing a really cool desert tower, except it's 1,700 feet tall, and it's overhanging steel and glass, [laughs] you know? I mean, it's so cool.
Fitz Cahall· Host0:49
Yeah. And live on Netflix.
Alex Honnold· Host0:52
Oh, yeah, live on Netflix. Yeah, I forgot that part.
Fitz Cahall· Host0:54
[laughs] Oh, that part. Yeah.
Alex Honnold· Host0:55
Yeah, that part. But actually, that part is funny. In terms of the actual experience for me, I mean, that's kind of the least relevant part of the experience, you know, because I'll just be climbing, and then I'll have a couple of my friends around filming at various places, and yes, it'll be going live on Netflix- [laughs] ... so that is kinda crazy. But, you know, obviously I won't be watching it, 'cause I'll be up there climbing, so.
Fitz Cahall· Host1:11
Yeah. You've been working on this project or some sort of sh- version of this project for, uh, as long as I've known you. You have quite a bit of experience climbing buildings, which I don't think most people know, and we'll get into that i- in our next episode. But I also think that a lot of climbers don't,