For anyone curious about the music that accompanies a no-rope ascent of Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, it turns out Alex Honnold had alternative metal heavyweights Tool in his ears. The 40-year-old professional climber, best known as the subject of the 2018 documentary “Free Solo,” completed the daring climb earlier today, January 25, as part of a live Netflix special.
Honnold scaled the 101-story skyscraper without ropes in approximately one hour and 35 minutes. Speaking with Variety afterward, he addressed the music that fueled the climb, even as some technical issues emerged during the broadcast, saying:
“It was mostly Tool. It’s a random playlist that I made, that I shared with production. I made it months ago while I was driving. I’ve been training to it a bunch. Basically, rock music that I’ve liked my whole life. Part of the appeal of music is that actually it helps me with pacing.”
“Each bamboo box had been taking me about five to six and a half minutes. I just know how long the songs are. So it gives you a sense of if you’re going fast or slow. But in this case, it all kept cutting out anyway, and I couldn’t really hear and I was kind of like, ‘Whatever. I’m just doing my thing.’”‘
Honnold did not elaborate on which tracks from Tool’s extensive catalog made the playlist, though it’s safe to say it likely didn’t include “Descending” from the band’s Billboard 200–topping 2019 return, Fear Inoculum.
After reaching the top of the skyscraper, Honnold marked the achievement by taking a series of celebratory selfies, seen below:
Alex Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber renowned for his free solo ascents of major big-wall routes. He gained global recognition in June 2017 after becoming the first person to free solo an entire route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Honnold completed the 880-meter (2,900-foot) Freerider route at grade 5.13a, marking the first big-wall free solo ascent at that difficulty. The achievement was hailed by The New York Times as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.”
Earlier, in 2015, Honnold received a Piolet d’Or alongside Tommy Caldwell for their alpine climbing accomplishment in Patagonia, where the pair completed the Fitz Traverse — an enchainment of the Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy) Group — over the course of five days.
Most recently, on January 25, 2026, Honnold completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101, setting a new benchmark as the tallest buildering free solo climb ever achieved.
