Legendary American rock climber Alex Honnold stunned the world yesterday when he scaled the 1,667-foot skyscraper Taipei 101 in Taiwan without any safety equipment.

The entire 90-minute event was broadcast live on Netflix on Saturday with a ten-second delay after being postponed due to weather earlier in the week. 

“It was like what a view, it’s incredible, what a beautiful day,” the 40-year-old climber said afterward, per Associated Press. “It was very windy, so I was like, don’t fall off the spire. I was trying to balance nicely. But it was, what an incredible position, what a beautiful way to see Taipei.”

Honnold has done major climbs before, but nothing to this scale. Spectators watched captivated as the climber ascended the massive skyscraper, at one point, going hands-free, gripping only with his legs.

A huge crowd of onlookers watched from the ground and in the building, which Honnold said was not the usual for him. 

ALEX HONNOLD AFTER COMPLETING HIS FREE SOLO OF TAIPEI 101: “Sick.”

The 101 story climb took 1 hour and 35 minutes #SkyscraperLIVE pic.twitter.com/TIzeRqiUcM

— Netflix (@netflix) January 25, 2026

“When I was leaving the ground, you’re like oh it’s kind of intense, there’s so many people watching,” he said, per the AP. “But then honestly, they’re all wishing me well. I mean basically it just makes the whole experience feel almost more festive, all these nice people are out supporting me and having a good time.”

The father of two first went viral in 2017 after becoming the first person to “free solo” on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, climbing 2,900 feet without safety equipment. The 2018 biographical documentary “Free Solo,” is about Honnold’s climbing career and won a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

“Free solo” in rock climbing means climbing without any ropes or harnesses. It’s the most dangerous form of climbing and often proves fatal. One mistake can easily result in death. 

Another climber, Alain Robert from France, climbed Taipei 101 in 2004 upon its completion. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world. However, Robert utilized ropes and harnesses for his ascent.

More than 800,000 customers in the United States, as far west as New Mexico, were without electricity, and over 10,000 flights were canceled on Sunday ahead of a monster winter storm that threatened to paralyze eastern states with heavy snowfall.

Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain, and dangerously frigid temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and into the week.

Calling the storms “historic,” President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.

“We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions.

“It’s going to be very, very cold,” Noem said. “So we’d encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together.”

The number of power outages continued to rise. As of 10:18 a.m. EST (1518 GMT) on Sunday, more than 800,000 U.S. customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with at least 300,000 in Tennessee and over 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama.

The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorizing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other major facilities, aiming to limit blackouts in the state.

On Sunday, the DOE issued an emergency order to authorize grid operator PJM Interconnection to run “specified resources” in the mid-Atlantic region, regardless of limits due to state laws or environmental permits.

The National Weather Service warned of an unusually expansive and long-duration winter storm that would bring widespread, heavy ice accumulation in the Southeast, where “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts” can be expected.

Weather service forecasters predicted record cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills descending further into the Great Plains region by Monday.

More than 10,100 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Over 4,000 flights were canceled on Saturday.

Major U.S. airlines warned passengers to stay alert for abrupt flight changes and cancellations.

Delta Air Lines adjusted its schedule on Saturday, with additional cancellations in the morning for Atlanta and along the East Coast, including in Boston and New York City.

It would relocate experts from cold-weather hubs to support de-icing and baggage teams at several southern airports, the airline said.

JetBlue said that as of Saturday morning, it had canceled about 1,000 flights through Monday.

United Airlines said it had proactively canceled some flights in places with the worst expected weather.

U.S. electric grid operators on Saturday stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts.

Dominion Energy, whose Virginia operations include the largest collection of data centers in the world, said if its ice forecast held, the winter event could be among the largest to affect the company.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Lewis Krauskopf; Additional reporting by Chandni Shah, Devika Nair, and Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru, and Blake Brittain in Washington, DC; Editing by Sergio Non, Chizu Nomiyama, Edwina Gibbs, Bernadette Baum, and Nick Zieminski)