The 1988 ascent of the Sydney Centrepoint was a technical climb with custom jumars for both the cables and the window tracks and a fun challenge for all, both the scouting, the climb, and the filming.
Originally titled The Only Building I Ever Wanted To Climb, later released as A Spire, there's a documentary film that follows a climb at night of "only" 1,000 feet.
... with a massive overhang.
A YouTube search pulls up a stream filmed from the ground (a nearby building?) using a zoom lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzthkg2ti2Q
For a deeper dive, the book "Alone on the wall" is a good read and I recommend it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36531127-alone-on-the-wa..., although that said the book might be less appealing to someone who 'knows nothing about climbing' and is more of a time investment than the short documentary :)
It would be insanely reckless to free solo without practicing first.
When watching Alex Honnold in Free Solo, I understood there was a exceptional aspect to him, but it took me seeing him climb with other people to really grasp the magnitude.
Free solo climbing is incredibly dangerous, but the people who do it (usually) prepare extensively and train their whole lives.
https://gitnux.org/rock-climbing-death-statistics/
This is in contradiction to the experience of driving, where any number of people on the road with you are untrained, undertrained, drunk, or suffering diseases that affect their ability to drive. Or just doing crimes like speeding or dangerous driving. So when climbing, your fate is entirely in your hands and that of nature's. When driving, it's in the hands of many strangers.
Alex is just a bit too crazy to follow him. I don't like suicidal tendencies
>Balin Miller, 23, was live-streamed on TikTok ascending and subsequently falling from the monolith on Wednesday.
>Details of what caused the incident are not clear, but Miller's brother Dylan told AFP he was lead rope soloing - a technique that enables climbing alone while still protected by a rope - on a 2,400ft (730m) route named Sea of Dreams.
>He had finished the climb and was hauling up equipment when he likely rappelled off the end of his rope, Dylan said.
>Tom Evans, a Yosemite-based photographer who witnessed Miller fall, told Climbing magazine he called 911 after Miller tried to free his bag, which was stuck on a rock.
https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...
https://nautil.us/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-s...
to a point, see: >>46750654 and consider that the initial overhang pass failed due to not finding an open bottomed window cleaning track to slot into, they backed up, tried another spar, and success )
this was an exercise of focus, indifference to exposure, and fitness to complete the 1,660 odd feet of ascent.
> he did it without safety equipment which is frankly just a bit daft.
People vary a lot, I had spent a few years climbing before someone pointed out that you could use ropes and protection .. indoor climbing gyms were fun for a while but never really became a thing of great interest for myself.
The second one is from the inside of the observatory (89th floor). Folks with media passes were allowed to get closer so that's the crowd you see pictured. He's climbing in the background.