Topline
Famous “Free Solo” climber Alex Honnold is set to attempt his first ever climb of a skyscraper in Taipei Friday night in a made-for-Netflix live stream event that has raised some ethical concerns among viewers and sent thousands of others to betting markets to place wagers on the 40-year-old’s fate.
Key Facts
Honnold will climb Taipei 101, a 1,667-foot-tall building among the tallest skyscrapers in the world, without ropes or safety nets.
Netflix has taken some heat from viewers from profiting from the death defying stunt and amping up the danger in promotional trailers—one of which points out that he is the father of two young children and will likely die if anything goes wrong.
Users of a climbing community on Reddit have said the project makes them feel Honnold “sold out to capitalism and the attention economy,” with one claiming the climb is “not very aligned” with traditional climbing ethics and is “really just sensationalism for the sake of shock and awe.”
GearJunkie, a climbing industry website, ran an op-ed that slammed the Netflix special and said it “quietly invites the outcome nobody wants to name, while profiting from the possibility that it happens.”
Richard Deitsch, a sports journalist, told the Guardian that Netflix has an ethical responsibility to “let the audience know this is not 100% foolproof” (Netflix is working with the same risk-management firm that has worked with Honnold on previous projects and there will be a 10-second delay on the broadcast, multiple sources reported).
Thousands of people have placed online bets on if Honnold will finish the climb (Polymarket says there’s a 94% chance he will) and how long it will take him (the best odds are estimating he’ll finish between 75 and 90 minutes).
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Crucial Quote
“The hook isn’t the climb—it’s the chance we might watch him die,” Seiji Ishii, writer and editor at GearJunkie, wrote.
Key Background
Honnold shot to fame outside of the climbing community in 2018 with the release of “Free Solo,” a biographical documentary about his quest to be the first person to ever free solo climb a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The documentary, which won a BAFTA and an Academy Award, thrust both its subject and the sport of free solo climbing—the act of ascending a cliff or mountain alone, without any ropes, harnesses or safety gear—into the spotlight. The New York Times called Honnold’s climb of Freerider, the route he took, as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.” Dozens of people have died on El Capitan. Honnold has also famously soloed Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in California. This will be Honnold’s first time free soloing a major skyscraper.
What Time Will Honnold’s Free Solo Be Live On Netflix?
“Skyscraper Live,” a two-hour event, will begin streaming live on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET Friday.
Tangent
“Skyscraper Live” is the first time Netflix has hosted a live daredevil feat, but the concept isn’t new. Evel Knievel famously performed a series of high-stakes daredevil spectacles in the 1960s and 70s that were broadcast on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” including a record-breaking 133-foot motorcycle jump over 14 Greyhound buses in Ohio. Several of his stunts failed, including a jump over the Caesars Palace fountain in Las Vegas that resulted in a 29-day hospital stay. The Discovery Channel broadcast a two-hour special in 2014, also called “Skyscraper Live,” that saw Nik Wallenda do a series of highwire walks between skyscrapers in Chicago, including one he did blindfolded. It was broadcast live in over 200 countries and was Discovery Channel’s most-watched broadcast of the year.