Althouse: "A French extreme free climber who calls himself Spider-Man... climbed Heron Tower, the tallest building in London City’s square mile, on Thursday afternoon."

October 25, 2018

"A French extreme free climber who calls himself Spider-Man... climbed Heron Tower, the tallest building in London City’s square mile, on Thursday afternoon."

The NYT reports. The man's real name is Alain Robert, and he is 56 years old. The building is more than 750 feet tall, and Robert "didn’t even know about" it until "I saw some pictures when I came to London two days ago."

24 comments:

YoungHegelian said...: "Oh, it's all fun and games until somebody ends up splattered like an overripe watermelon on the pavement..."; 10/25/18, 1:25 PM
narayanan said...: "Climbs Heron Tower in London'

counts only if he used one leg; 10/25/18, 1:27 PM
Fernandinande said...: The building is actually 663 feet tall w/o the antenna, but it'd still be funny if someone shot off a firecracker as he was going past their window.; 10/25/18, 1:35 PM
Dave said...: That's nothing. I climbed Pike's Peak which is over 14K feet, and all I had was a car.; 10/25/18, 1:42 PM
eddie willers said...: That made my testicles ache.; 10/25/18, 1:49 PM
Owen said...: If he had fallen and crushed somebody? Was he insured? No points if you said “Of course not.” Was the building covered by its policy or would it be sued for having created an “attractive nuisance” that lured freaks like this the way a swimming pool lures toddlers?

Enough with the narcissism. Bust his ass hard.; 10/25/18, 2:02 PM
Michael K said...: Meanwhile some teenagers fell from a popular lookout point in Yosemite.; 10/25/18, 2:04 PM
RK said...: It'd suck if that guy was your dad or son or husband and he liked doing shit like that. Otherwise, it's entertaining.; 10/25/18, 2:09 PM
MadisonMan said...: So was everyone watching waiting for him to fall?; 10/25/18, 2:20 PM
Rob said...: What's the big deal? Everybody knows some frogs have toe pads that operate like suction cups. Apparently this frog is one of them.; 10/25/18, 2:23 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: That's a guy I'd like to meet in a bar just to hear his stories.

If he tells them in English.; 10/25/18, 2:36 PM
rehajm said...: Calls himself Spider-Man? How original...; 10/25/18, 2:56 PM
Curious George said...: Pfffft The original "Spiderman" was a SpiderDan in Chicago who free climbed the Hancock Building. The fire department used fire hoses to try to stop him but he eventually was high enough that they just let him go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47cV5r_Iqzg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKwRFwV5dHE; 10/25/18, 2:58 PM
rhhardin said...: Once one floor has the handholds you need, they all do.; 10/25/18, 3:00 PM
Ralph L said...: He could have fallen and made a big crepe.; 10/25/18, 3:10 PM
readering said...: 56? Wow.
Reminds me I should see Free Solo.; 10/25/18, 3:15 PM
Aggie said...: Nothing worse than a Frenchman with a Heron addiction.; 10/25/18, 3:18 PM
Tomcc said...: It's a sign of my age that I don't find this kind of stunt amusing or inspiring. Courageous? Yes. Why not do it in the wee hours of the morning when you're less likely to bring traffic and people to a standstill? And, maybe, less likely to get arrested. Or, better yet- go climb a friggin mountain!; 10/25/18, 3:22 PM
FullMoon said...: I can't do that anymore. Too many responsibilities..; 10/25/18, 3:41 PM
AllenS said...: The fall wouldn't have killed him. The sudden stop would have killed him.; 10/25/18, 3:48 PM
Caligula said...: Yeah, well, sometimes attaining the summit is only half the challenge. Sometimes it's even less than half, as one is already tired and descending can be trickier than climbing.; 10/25/18, 3:50 PM
D 2 said...: Is Society fine if you are clearly insane in one very specific way (climb very tall structures for no valid reason) as long as the insanity doesn't seep over into your observances of other aspects of modern civ? Sure, we can't trust you to walk on by the Chrysler building, but we can trust you with driving on the right side of the road ...right?
I suppose you have to ensure that your exclusive form of insanity is not readily identified as a criminal act - i.e. Sawing all park benches you see in half because hey why not.
Please lets no one saw the bench I like to sit in at the park please.; 10/25/18, 4:14 PM
Tommy Duncan said...: I'm reminded I need to clean the rain gutters.; 10/25/18, 5:29 PM
Bill Peschel said...: Coincidentally, I was reading a memoir last week by a medial examiner who worked 9/11. She heard from Ground Zero about how the bodies were hitting the pavement and bounced high before stopping.

Doing the autopsies, she marveled at how the impact shredded their organs. I mean, pulverized their insides.

That sudden stop is a bitch.; 10/25/18, 6:31 PM