Posted on 12/24/2004 7:13:00 PM PST by Dr. Marten
'Spiderman' Tries to Climb Tallest Tower
Dec 24, 9:04 PM (ET)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A French urban climber who calls himself "Spiderman" began his attempt to scale the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, on Saturday morning.
Alain Robert, 42, said he would need two hours and 15 minutes to reach the top of the 508-meter building. He planned to climb the tower using only a safety belt attached to a rope.
The climb began under gray skies and heavy rain, but still went ahead. The building's management, which invited Robert, said it could cancel the event at any time if the wind or rain grew too strong.
Organizers said teams of safety personnel and nurses were standing by on different floors to intervene if necessary.
Robert, who is renowned for climbing without ropes, has also scaled the Eiffel Tower and more than 30 skyscrapers around the world, including New York's Empire State Building in 1994 and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1997.
The Christmas Day climb opened a week of media events leading up to the official inauguration of Taipei 101 on New Year's Eve. The building houses office space and an observatory. A shopping mall at the base of the tower opened last year.
The 101-story skyscraper is 184 feet taller than the previous record-holder, the Petronas Towers. Taipei 101 also claims to have the highest structural top, the tallest roof and the highest occupied floor.
It also has two of the world's fastest elevators, which travel 3,333 feet per minute and can go from the ground floor to the 89th floor in 39 seconds.
As long as he needs to take the elevator down.
I've seen this guy climb, he's *really* good. I saw in interview that was conducted at his home. In the background while Robert and the interviewer were talking, his little toddler girl wedged herself into the corner of the room and climbed to the ceiling backwards, with no hand holds.
Must run in the family. The guy has climbed everything, including one of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, holding onto the *rounded off rivet heads*.
That reminds me of the Mythbusters episode where they debunked the myth that you could survive a fall even from an 8 story building if the Elevator was dropped from the top of the shaft. I forget the speed/sec they mentioned but 3,333 ft/min is basically 38 mph.
The was an article on the BBC site about them a while back - the cabins adjust their air pressure as they travel!
60(mph) * 3333(ft/min)/5280(ft/min)= ~38 mph
gotta hand it to the PR firm of the building, they got global news coverage by outsourcing one thrillseeker....
Ok, to survive, if an elevator were ever to actually fall, which in itself is almost impossible, the actual fall from an eight story building all you have to do is for everyone to jump up just before you hit bottom..(little humor just in case someone thinks I am serious)
Mythbusters episode
That's what the episode was about - had a spring rigged up to a dummy in the elevator in an old hotel they were tearing down or something. Spring "ejects" the dummy a split second before the landing! Didn't work - dummy parts all over the place - it was awful :(
"Hello, Human Fly here! Come on I spent all night dying my underwear."
lol
sadly....he will fall one day if he continues.
beats dying in a nursing home.
Whoa ping! Check out the pics.
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