How does he do it? A French climber, known as Spider-Man for his amazing ability to scale enormous buildings, has completed one of his most death-defying feats yet.
Spider-Man, whose real name is Alain Robert, climbed the 452m (1,483ft) Tower Two of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Robert took two hours to complete his climb and, as usual, he used no ropes or safety equipment, so if he lost his grip there was nothing between him and a messy splat on the pavement.
For 15 years Robert, who is 47, has been wowing onlookers and enraging security guards with his perilous ascents of the world’s most famous skyscrapers and monuments, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
Just 5ft 2in, Robert is an expert climber and climbs by gripping on to the tiny ledges and cracks on walls and windows. He sometimes carries a small bag of chalk powder around his waist, to absorb sweat on his hands. Huge crowds gather to watch his terrifying climbs, but his exploits get him into a lot of trouble — he has been in prison on four continents. He rarely gets permission for his climbs, so he usually begins under cover of darkness, appearing at dawn on the side of his chosen skyscraper before anyone can stop him. This was Robert’s third attempt to climb one of the Petronas Towers, having been seized by security guards mid-climb in 1998 and 2007. After finally getting to the top this week, he was immediately arrested for trespassing.
“I came to finish something,” he said. “Climbing the Petronas is one of my dreams ... maybe I am also a bit stubborn.”
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Better not try this at home
Spider-Man may have many successful climbs under his belt, but things don’t always run smoothly for him:
? In 1999, as Robert climbed the 110 storey Willis Tower (then the Sears Tower) in Chicago, a thick fog set in that covered the building’s glassy walls with moisture, making it dangerously slippery. After an agonisingly slow climb, he reached the top.
? You never see Spider-Man get caught in the rain in the movies. But in 2002 Robert got stuck three quarters of the way up the 800ft Canary Wharf tower in London, in torrential rain, and had to be rescued by a window-cleaning lift.
? In 2004, Robert suffered a nasty fall and needed 40 stitches in a cut after climbing — a traffic light! He was being photographed for an interview at the time. A month later, however, he climbed what was at the time the world’s tallest skyscraper, Tapei 101.