Buildering

I love these guys. . . “Builderers” (get it, like boulderers, but they climb buildings instead). This is a sport I actually aspired to back in my wild and woolly days as editor of Vertical Jones.

Anyway, seriously, this French dude Alain Robert, known as Spiderman, over the years has climbed the face of the Sears Tower in Chicago; the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur; the Eiffel Tower; the Golden Gate Bridge; and the Empire State Building.

His latest feat, on February 23, was to ascend the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority tower in the United Arab Emirates. That’s what these images are from.

And he did it in front of a crowd of about 100,000 onlookers, many sickos no doubt willing him to biff.

This web site has a bunch of pics from the Abu Dhabi climb.

Plus, I found this interview with Mr. Robert on www.buildering.net, which goes into his various run-ins with the law and near-death experiences on the tall smooth faces of these manmade precipices.