Alex Honnold says he would have climbed Taipei 101 — the world’s 11th-tallest skyscraper — for free. But because the free-solo ascent was performed live for a global audience, the climber has admitted his fee is an “embarrassing amount” of money.
Speaking to The New York Times ahead of the climb, Honnold was asked whether the stunt marks the biggest payday of his career.
“Maybe. It’s less than my agent aspired to,” he said. “I mean, I would do it for free. If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing. I mean, just sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane.”
Honnold continued: “And so, you know, if there wasn’t the whole spectacle around it, and I just had the opportunity to go do it by myself, I’d be fine with that. I would do that, but in this case, there is a spectacle. I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m getting paid for the spectacle. I’m climbing the building for free.”
Honnold refused to disclose the exact amount of his paycheck. “It’s an embarrassing amount,” he said.
When pressed further, he added: “Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount. You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170m contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about.”
When the interviewer floated a $10m figure, Honnold quickly shot it down. “No!” he said. “So in that case, yeah — an embarrassingly small amount.”
According to The New York Times, two people with direct knowledge of the deal said the climber was being paid in the mid-six figures.
Honnold is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock climbers in the world. With more than 30 years of experience, he rose to global prominence in 2017 after becoming the first person to free solo a full route up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — a feat later chronicled in the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo.
The climber took one hour, 31 minutes and 43 seconds to complete the hair-raising stunt on Saturday evening.
On Friday night, just minutes before Skyscraper Live was due to air on Netflix on Friday (January 23), it was announced that the special had been postponed due to wet weather conditions in Taipei.
Honnold said he hopes the climb has inspired others to “pursue their own challenges, their own goals.”
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