Friday, April 18, 2008

The French Spiderman





He usually appears alone at dawn, wearing ordinary clothing and climbing shoes. Then, before the police have a chance to stop him, he slowly begins to scale the side of one of the world's famous skyscrapers. Without ropes or equipment. Using only his bare hands. He's climbed the Eiffel Tower, Chicago's Sears Tower, the Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House. Earlier this week, crowds gathered in Hong Kong to watch Alain Robert, the French Spiderman, climb the 60-storey Four Seasons Place.

According to Wikipedia, Robert began climbing at the age of twelve, when he discovered he'd been locked out of his eighth-floor apartment. Instead of waiting for his parents to come home, he simply scaled the walls of his building and let himself in through a window.

Since then, Robert has climbed at least 85 of the world's tallest structures, battling high winds, slippery surfaces, and dense fog. He's survived seven falls, and he's been arrested dozens of times.

See a short film about Alain Robert below. I felt a little queasy just watching the video!


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a cool fetish/talent

E-star said...

Wow, to me this seems very scary and crazy, but at the same time extremly cool! Don't know how to get such an idea but if I ever would, that would be amazing.

Anonymous said...

I thought you live in New York. Are you not originally from there? Or why did you spell story in British or Australian English(storey)?

Sorry I'm just confused and curious.

Anonymous said...

I'd normally say he was crazy, but, you know, we need crazy people to shake things up a bit.

Ananka (if you still go by that. Kiki?): You should do a post on the Chicago Pedway.

Thumb Biter said...

I need to learn how to do that. He should give the Irregulars lessons.
AWESOMENESS!!

Anonymous said...

That's not human!
~Sekrit7

Raph said...

How does he do it? o.o

ss chick said...

daaaaang. thats really cool. I dont mind heights unless my grips unstable, my footings unstable, or that specific height is moving. like trees in wyoming. climbing a pine on a windy day is NOT smart, trust me. but thats cool. really cool. GO ALAIN!

Kirsten Miller said...

Anonymous #3: I don't know! I have a lot of British people (and one charming Australian) in my family, and some times I get confused when it comes to spelling.

Invisible Turtle: I am in awe! The boutique is super cool. I love it!!! Your blog is fantastic, too!

Anonymous #4: What's the Chicago Pedway?

Muslim Irregular said...

hi everyone!


that's so cool! i'd like to learn how to do that!


by, the way, i want to create a blog just for irregulars where irregulars can post short stories about missions they've been on before. It would just be fun to.If you want to contact me on my blog. Thanks!




that still is pretty cool (the spider person, not the irregular blog,) I can barely even rock climb...

B-ball-erina said...

That's insane! I was freaking out watching the video!

Anonymous said...

Kiki: The Pedway is a little-known underground tunnel that runs under Chicago. It's open to the public. I'm going down there soon (I just hope it's open). Find out more at Wikipedia.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah. KIki: There's map of the Pedway on this one website (can't remember name). It comes up on Google if you search Pedway.

Anonymous said...

Last comment about Pedway: I'm pretty sure there's an entrance at the Fairmont Hotel.

purple crescent said...

Nice! I'd like to do that, but my irregular talent is different, and secret.

Kitty said...

Wow OoO How did he do that!?!?

Anonymous said...

That guy is insane - but he should be recruited into the Irregulars, don't you think? The perfect addition to Kiki's crew! If they ever have any trouble getting into buildings, he could just scale it and find any open window to let the girls in.

The only problem; he's not a 14 year old girl.

~Skyla

Anonymous said...

simply... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!