Environment

'Spiderman' Alain Robert Climbs Cheung Kong Center in Hong Kong

by Tina Kells | February 17, 2009 at 09:37 am

1367 views | 6 Recommendations | 3 comments

Alain Robert, a French daredevil known as 'Spiderman,' has completed another death defying climb of a major skyscraper, this time in Hong Kong. Robert scaled the outside of the Cheung Kong Center, an imposing building owned by Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing. Robert had previously climbed the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong.

It took Robert about 40 minutes Tuesday to scramble up the downtown Cheung Kong Center - the flagship building of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing. Upon reaching the top of the 885.83-foot (270-meter) building, Robert waved to a crowd of spectators on the ground below.
The 46-year-old said police officers questioned him after the ascent, but released him without any charges.

The 46-year old Alain Robert has scaled the outside of more than 85 sky scraping landmarks around the world. He makes his climbs without any sort of safety support equipment like ropes or harnesses, although he does wear a helmet.

The list of Robert's conquests include; the Empire State Building and the New York Times building in New York, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Eiffel Tower and Montparnesse Opera House in Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Portland House and the Lloyd's of London building in Britian, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi in the UAE, the City Tower in Jakarta, and the Malaysia's Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Why does Alain Robert risk his life by climbing on the outside of these high reaching buildings? Roberts is an avid environmentalist and hopes to draw attention to the issue of global warming by making the risky climbs.

"The global warming is something that is going to affect the next generation," Robert told reporters on the ground level. "The future is really compromised if we are not doing anything."

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jhazell

at 11:46 on February 17th, 2009

Awesome post, don't know how much attention he will get for global warming by doing this, but I'm going out right now to buy some ACME Super Sucker Shoes!!! Cool!!

car1edb

at 14:35 on February 17th, 2009

kool! - the guy brings attention to every climb he does! even if its just a little, its usually for a worthy cause. Risky for mortals, but he's a professional climber and most buildings are easy for him, just the long ones usually get him when he get too tired or hot (remember one in dubai, 100deg on glass with min water etc.. ).

Im sure his wife^kid know what his deal is. Ie. its who he is/doing what he loves ;)