zlacker

>>keepam+(OP)
Stuff like this seems a bit... selfish? to me. Why risk falling, and people having to see that/having to clean that up? For a bit of adrenaline and publicity? Meh.

>>squigz+04
The Taipei tourism bureau disagrees. Many here as well. The more eyes on Taiwan, the better. I'm grateful Alex was willing to risk his life for this spectacle, now potentially millions will have at least some concept of Taipei and Taiwan in their minds.

>>komali+94
Did he do this climb with no safety equipment for Taiwan or for Alex?

I'm with the OP - watching people so willfully put their lives in danger isn't my cup of tea. I'm just glad he didn't die.

>>Secret+p5
He did it because he thought it would be cool to free solo a building. He grew up idolizing Alain Robert, a french soloist who made his bread and butter out of soloing buildings. The guy was free soloing for free on his own without telling anyone about it for years, living out of his mom's minivan and eating cheap food, the media attention just allows him to be more comfortable as he keeps climbing obsessively. Also running his foundation probably gives a lot of meaning to what he's doing, he'd just be your average dirtbag loser otherwise.

I'm going to add that his coolest achievements were done with ropes. The friendly race to climbing a route graded 5.15 with Sonnie Trotter and Tommy Caldwell is a lot more interesting to me.