French ‘Spiderman’ scaled the world tallest man made structure; Burj Khalifa

Two days ago (28/3/2011), the famous French climber commonly known as the Spiderman had made the first attempt to climb to the top of the world tallest building, Burj Khalifa. With a height of over 828m, it is by far also the world tallest ever man made structure.

The climber is Alain Robert, whom have climbed many skyscrapers around the world including former world tallest buildings, like Taipei 101 in 2004, Petronas Twin Towers in 2009 (first and second attempts in 1997 and 2007 failed due to arrest) and Sears Tower (now named Willis Tower) in 1999. With his age of 48, he is still energetic and strong enough to continue his interest on climbing tall structures eventhough it is very dangerous and life-threatening. In some attempts, he did not even use safety ropes, but luckily not for this one in scaling Burj Khalifa as the government wanted him to be safe.

He spent 6 hours and 15 minutes in climbing to the top of the spire of the tower. Imagine yourself climbing at such a height with the angle directly vertical from the ground! This must be impossible for a lot of people except him. 6 hours of climb would be very tiring and among the longest for him. This would be a great achievement for him, as previously he scaled building of around 400 and 500 m the most, but this time it’s over 800 m! Many people took photographs and videos of him climbing the tower, which he successfully climbed to the top after midnight. Can you spot Alain in the picture below? I don’t think so…

It must be very exhausting for him, but he still managed to do it! He could have just taken the world fastest lift to the top, but he wanted for a breakthrough access to the top, which is by climbing the exterior. Of course, he went back down to the ground by lift. I would definitely praised for his effort on climbing to the top of Burj Khalifa, and now he is surely very famous for many records he hold now, especially the latest one; Burj Khalifa!