Alex Honnold has spent the past three months training for this moment: free soloing – climbing without ropes or a harness – one of Asia’s tallest skyscrapers, Taipei 101. It is an ambition that began more than a decade ago and is now close to being realized.
The climb will be broadcast globally on Skyscraper Live, Netflix’s latest foray into live sports programming. The star of the 2019 Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo insists that climbing Taipei 101 will feel no different from any other of his ascents.
“You walk up to the base, you hop on to the building, you climb all the way to the top,” Honnold said on his podcast, Climbing Gold. “No ropes. No gear. No margin of error.”
The two-hour event will take place at 9am local time in Taipei on Saturday, or 8pm ET on Friday in the US, and has already generated both excitement and criticism.
There is a long tradition in the US of live-broadcast daredevil feats, from Evel Knievel’s motorcycle jumps in the 1970s to Red Bull’s modern-day record attempts. Netflix is not breaking new ground with Honnold, but it is continuing its push into live sports, joining Apple, Amazon Prime and Alphabet’s YouTube in acquiring rights to major events.
Last year, Netflix aired Christmas Day NFL games and the Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua boxing match. It is also set to broadcast Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby and the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup.
“What their strategy has been so far is to eventize sports,” said Richard Deitsch, a journalist who has covered US sports media for more than two decades. “They’re looking for one-offs rather than large inventories.”
He described Skyscraper Live as “sports adjacent”, designed to draw viewers to Netflix’s broader catalogue. “Sports drives audience,” Deitsch said. “You have to watch it live.”
Even so, Deitsch argues that streamers have an ethical obligation to be transparent about risk. “They owe you honesty,” he said. “Here are the dangers. Let the audience know this is not 100% foolproof.”
Netflix is disclosing those risks, but it is also selling them. Thousands of people are placing bets on Honnold’s fate and completion time on Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction market, where current odds suggest he will finish the climb in around 75 minutes.
The Guardian understands that the live stream will carry a viewer-discretion advisory and run on a 10-second delay, allowing Netflix to cut the feed if necessary. Honnold will remain in constant communication with his camera crew and producers.
Netflix is working with Plimsoll Productions and Secret Compass, both of which have previously collaborated with Honnold on high-stakes projects including Arctic Ascent in Greenland and The Devil’s Climb in Alaska. A small live audience has been invited to watch in Taipei, and an on-air panel – featuring elite climbers alongside a former ESPN anchor, a WWE champion and a Nasa engineer turned YouTuber – will contextualize the attempt.
In recent days, Honnold has been spotted conducting rope-assisted test runs amid drizzle and the wail of ambulance sirens, with permission from the Taipei city government.
The decision to livestream the 1,667ft (508m) ascent has sparked backlash froms some within the climbing community. Critics, including a Wall Street Journal columnist, have pointed to the high number of free-solo deaths and to Honnold’s role as a husband and father, branding the event “voyeuristic, ghoulish and irresponsible”.
Concerns intensified after an Alaskan climbing influencer died last year in a fall that was livestreamed on TikTok. Saturday Night Live even skewered the ethics of Honnold’s climb in a recent cut-for-time sketch.
At Long Dong, the sandstone “dragon caves” overlooking the Pacific Ocean northeast of Taipei and a popular climbing destination, amateur climber Chien Ai said he would not watch the live stream.
“I don’t want to see something I’m not supposed to see,” he said. Instead, he plans to check news reports first and watch the replay only if Honnold succeeds.
At a climbing gym in Taipei’s Zhonghe district, Yang Tse-hsiao , 41, a teacher who has climbed for six years, said he expects Honnold to succeed but still opposes the live stream.
“I don’t understand why it has to be done this way, other than for commercial reasons,” he said. “If he falls, the price is huge.”
His friend Chou Yen-shin, 61, who has climbed for 24 years, was less concerned. He believes Honnold would not attempt anything reckless and sees Skyscraper Live as a chance to raise Taiwan’s global profile.
To the untrained eye, Taipei 101 looks forbidding. To climbers, its architecture offers predictability. The building’s distinctive “bamboo box” design features stacked segments with balconies every eight floors, providing regular opportunities to rest – akin to a multipitch rock climb.
“One of the big differences between climbing a building and climbing rock is that there isn’t really a single hardest move,” Honnold told Netflix. Skyscrapers, he said, test endurance more than technical skill. “The challenge is the overall physicality. I don’t know how it’s going to feel.”
The only person with comparable experience is Alain Robert, the 63-year-old French climber known as “Spiderman”, who climbed Taipei 101 on top rope in 2004. At the time, Robert was recovering from elbow surgery and faced high winds, rain and greasy holds on the unfinished structure.
“I know Alex,” Robert said. “He has already planned his limits. There is not even a one-in-100-million chance that this will be his last climb.”
Asked about the potential trauma of witnessing an accident, Robert shrugged. Wars, riots and coups are livestreamed every day, he said. “Death is part of life.”
Dr Jamie Shapiro, a professor of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver, said Honnold’s mental preparation – including visualisation and self-talk – would be crucial.
“You can’t predict every challenge,” she said. “But you can trust your training and your competence. He has enough experience to stay composed if something unexpected happens.”
Audiences, Shapiro added, are often drawn to moments of genuine risk. Watching an elite athlete attempt something impossible for the average person can inspire people to push themselves in positive ways.
If weather conditions permit and he is not climbing outdoors at Long Dong, Chou plans to tune in.
“Anyone who has climbed that long has a calm mind,” he said. “It will be a breakthrough.”
