James Bond Principles: Taipei 101
1/21/202628 min
The internet is talking. Why is Alex so psyched to climb a skyscraper on live TV? How hard is Taipei 101? Is this a gimmick? The answers go deeper than you might expect. Fitz sat down with Alex to break it down before he left for Taipei.
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First 90 secondsFitz Cahall· Host0:00
Alex, you were, you were back in the valley this fall. You spent some time on the side of El Cap and on the side of Middle Cathedral. What is your sort of go-to comfort piece of clothing?
Alex Honnold· Host0:10
I just spent six days on the wall with Tommy climbing El Cap, and my evening routine that just screamed indulgent comfort, like, "This is beautiful," is I would take off my harness and my climbing pants, and I would change into long johns and down, like, puffy pants and, and then just put a slinger on my waist.
Fitz Cahall· Host0:26
Yeah.
Alex Honnold· Host0:26
And then, and then I'd put my big puffy on top. It's basically my Antarctic-style puffy. [laughs] And then you just feel like you're wearing a sleeping bag, and you can just sit around on the ledge and just, like, watch the moon rise.
Fitz Cahall· Host0:35
[laughs] You are a California climber through and through.
Alex Honnold· Host0:39
Yeah. It, it was chilly, though. Basically, I'm just using the advanced mountain kit. I'm... And, and actually, I found that it really made a difference because we were getting up way before sunrise because we wanted to be climbing as soon as it was light. And if you're trying to get out of your sleeping bag at 4:30 in the morning, you kinda want the big layers because [laughs] you just wanna feel totally warm. The North Face has you covered. Discover gear designed to take you to new heights at thenorthface.com.
Fitz Cahall· Host1:02
Alex, you've got about two weeks left before climbing Taipei 101 live in front of millions of people watching Netflix. People are talking. There's a lot of questions around this whole thing. I think on one level, this seems like it's kind of out of left field, but the reality is that this is something you've been trying to make happen for a long time.
Alex Honnold· Host1:22
I mean, I've been climbing on play structures, climbing on buildings since long before I started rock climbing. I climbed on this, the school by my house, uh,