Skyscraper live: Alex Honnold’s free solo climb delayed over safety concerns

There has been significant debate over how Netflix will react should the worst happen during Honnold’s rescheduled attempt to scale Taipei 101.

Netflix unscripted series VP Jeff Gaspin told Variety: “It’s obviously a conversation that everybody has.”

He added: “You can imagine what we’ll do. It’s nothing momentous. We’ll cut away. We have a 10-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen. But we will cut away, and it’s as simple as that.”

Rain or not, how much money would it take to convince you to climb a skyscraper without safety equipment?

Alex Honnold would have done it for free, which seems to have put him at a disadvantage when negotiating with Netflix.

More details of his “embarassingly small” pay day here:

In a video message posted on X, Honnold appears in front of a rain-soaked window and acknowledges “climbing is always at the mercy of nature.”

He captioned the video: “Sadly it’s raining in Taipei right now so I don’t get to go climbing today. But I’ve been really touched by all the support and well wishes from folks – hopefully the weather improves and I get an opportunity to climb the beautiful Taipei 101. Fingers crossed! Same time tomorrow on Netflix.”

While Honnold’s climb has been delayed by the weather conditions, there’s no chance the climber will be reconsidering his decision to scale Taipei 101.

Asked earlier this week by The New York Times what he hopes viewers will take away from watching his daredevil feat, Honnold responded: “When there were some announcements about climbing the building, there was some criticism in the climbing world of like, Oh, you know, that’s stupid, that’s a stunt. But my hope is that people watching it will at least see the joy in it.

“Like when you’re a kid and look around and think, It’d be amazing to climb up there. As an adult, that gets hammered out of you. ‘Why would you do that? That’s dangerous. Do you have insurance?’ You know, all that type of stuff. But there’s something to be said for maintaining that childlike joy of just looking at it, like, That is amazing. I want to do that.”

Alex Honnold hasn’t yet commented publicly on the delay to his climb, beyond retweeting Netflix’s official announcement.

However, the writer Adam Skolnick is with Honnold in Taipei and wrote earlier today that the climber’s confidence had been “shaken by the bad weather”.

In a post on his Substack, Skolnick wrote that Honnold was also concerned about residue on the building left over from a New Year’s Eve firework show.

“It feels way worse right now than it did when I was here in September,” Honnold told him. “Basically the whole thing is coated in grease, so it feels horrible.”

As for the weather conditions, Honnold added that he was feeling the pressure of having to make the climb happen within a specific timeframe for Netflix.

“If this was free soloing on rock, I would just, like, be elsewhere for the next week, and I’d come when it’s beautiful,” he said.

“The whole process would be totally different. You never just, like, look out your window, at this menacing thing in the rain for like, five days.”

The fact that Netflix have felt it necessary to postpone Honnold’s climb due to the wet weather conditions further highlights just how dangerous the free solo feat really is.

Speaking to CNN, Honnold confirmed that were he to fall, it would likely be fatal – but qualified this fear due to the shape of the building.

“If something happens, I would die, though actually, on this particular building, that’s not even totally true because there are balconies every few floors,” he said of the 101-storied building.

“The geometry of the building, the shape of the building is such that you actually could fall in tons of places and not actually die, which makes it in some ways safer than a lot of rock-climbing objectives.”

Alex Honnold will surely be feeling immense disappointment at not being able to climb today as planned.

In an interview with the New York Times earlier this week he was asked about the possibility of rescheduling to a different date and responded: “If it’s not raining, I’m doing it.”

As to whether he’d thought about the possibility of bailing out during the climb itself, he pointed out that at “any balcony I could just go inside and use the elevator” but insisted he hadn’t even thought about whether or not he’d still be paid his full fee in that case.

“I actually don’t know what the contract is, and, honestly, I don’t care,” he said. “If I’m bailing for some reason, it’s because I need to bail, and then it doesn’t matter what a contract says.”

If you’re tuning in to Netflix hoping to watch Skyscraper Live, we’re afraid the event has been postponed until the same time tomorrow.

The conditions in Taipei this morning were simply too wet and overcast for the event to go ahead.

A January date had been chosen for the climb as it is currently dry season in Taiwan.

And as of now, the forecast looks better for 24 hours time. According to AccuWeather, tomorrow will be “partly sunny and pleasant”.

In a statement posted to their official X account, Netflix wrote: “Due to weather, we are unable to proceed with today’s #SkyscraperLIVE event.

“It has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 24 at 8 PM ET | 5 PM PT.

“Safety remains our top priority, and we appreciate your understanding.”

Reports are now emerging from Taipei that Honnold’s climb has been postponed until tomorrow.

CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote on X: “Change of plans: Netflix’s ‘Skyscraper Live’ has been postponed for 24 hours. It’s a very wet, rainy day in Taipei, per CNN’s team on the ground there. The event will now be attempted Sunday 9am local time/Saturday 8pm US ET.”

Fans on Netflix have also noted that the app itself now lists Skyscraper Live as being “Live tomorrow.”

The Independent has contacted Netflix for a statement.