Absolute Madman! My Trip Up the Taipei 101

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

A big story in the news last week (not as big as Trump's War on America, but big nonetheless) was the adventure tale of American rock climber Alex Honnold, age 40, who scaled the exterior of the tallest building in Taiwan (by far), and formerly the tallest building in the world, the Taipei 101.  Mr. Honnold, a man Yahoo News referred to as "an absolute madman," climbed up the side of the building without using ropes or safety equipment, a climbing process called "free solo."

The Taipei 101 currently ranks as only the 11th tallest building in the world, but it is impressive as hell, standing tall and lean in the center of Taiwan's capital and dwarfing its urban neighbors.  The 101 is, obviously, 101 stories above ground, with five basement levels below ground.  The aboveground part of the structure is 1,667 feet in height.  It has a glassed-in observation deck on the 89th floor, an open-air deck on the 91st floor, and an "exclusive" deck on the 101st floor - all supported by the world's fastest elevator.  (The trip to the 89th floor is 37 seconds.)

Like Mr. Honnold, I too, have ascended the Taipei 101, except I had the good sense to do it by elevator.  While I was a civilian social worker at the Mental Health Unit at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, (2010-2012), two co-workers and I spent several days exploring Taiwan in February of 2012.  One of the first places we chose to tour was the Taipei 101, the literal centerpiece of the city.  Unfortunately, it was overcast the morning of our visit, and the outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor was closed, so we had to settle for the enclosed observation deck on the 89th floor.  (I don't remember what made the 101st floor "exclusive," but it was probably an exorbitant access fee.)

The view from the 89th floor was not great that morning because of fog, but we were able to look down on the structures close to the towering building.  One of the things that I remember being pointed out to us was the Dr. Sun-Yat-sen Memorial Hall which is located a few blocks from the Taipei 101.  

That afternoon we toured a tea plantation outside of the city which was at the foot of a mountain.  We rode gondolas (like ritzy ski-resorts use) up the mountain, and then later during the descent got off and visited a large Buddhist temple.   The fog was gone and that airborne adventure was lovely.  (All those Taiwan adventures are still posted in the archives of this blog.)

But, back to the Taipei 101.   Here is the portion of my blog entry for February 17th, 2012, which recounts that historic (for me) ascent into the clouds (of fog):

"Much of our first day in Taiwan was spent in some mighty high places.  After we figured out how to use the subway system, we traveled downtown and made our way to the Taipei 101, the tallest building on Taiwan and a very unique piece of architecture.   It was a cloudy. miserable day, so after riding what was billed as the world's fastest elevator up to the observation room on the 89th floor, we found ourselves wrapped in fog, more so than usual, and not able to see much from the enormous windows.  There was a very large and very beautiful collection of carved coral on display on the 89th floor as well as much coral jewelry for sale - and plenty of assorted tourist junk."

(If I had suspected that I would be repeating that observation in this blog fourteen years later, I would have taken more pains in crafting that description, but we were rushing around Taipei and the vicinity seeing the sights, and the quality of the blog necessarily suffered as my focus was on being a tourist.)

Alex Honnold, the absolute madman, chose a sunny day for his trip to the top of the Taipei 101, and massive crowds stood below on the streets to cheer him ever upward.  There were also many people watching from the windows inside of the building as he passed.  The entire climb took around an hour and a half.  The daring spiderman listened to a metal band called "Tool" as he made his way, hand over hand, up the side of the building.

Netflix reportedly paid Alex Honnold in the neighborhood of $500,000 to make the live, free solo, climb. an amount he referred to as "embarrassingly small" as compared to other major sports contracts, though it wasn't too shabby for an hour-and-a-half's work.

Pa Rock is fairly certain that he had to pay to ride the elevator up the same building, and that feat left him feeling like an "absolute madman," too!