At 60, Alain Robert has become a legend around the world, a genius clairvoyant madman from whom we do not know what to expect except that the Champagne flows, that nothing is quite planned and that life prevails. always on the rest. In the free solo niche, who can claim such longevity? Such consistency? Making crazy risk-taking a world of life is the legacy that this generation of rockers passes on to us. Alain is a rocker, rock heart too, just a rock, crazy about freedom. He is probably the oldest climber to dare to venture on a comeback without any safety equipment on the vertiginous cliffs of the Verdon, 20 years after having left them.
Introducing the famous French Spider-Man, Alain Robert, in his home in Bali to reminisce over his past feats, mapping the mind of a world-class daredevil. In our interview with Alain, we touch on both the high points and the low points of his career, including the numerous incidents he's had over the years and what it takes for him to return to a sport that has nearly taken his life so many times.
Alain Robert - aka the “French Spiderman” – climbs all kind of skyscraper (to the great joy of the public and the despair of the police) with a weakness for the highest ones like the Sears Towers in Chicago, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or Taipei 101 in Taiwan. With his short frame and at almost 50, Alain is a physical phenomenon capable of hoisting his body with only one finger despite a major disability due to a fall in 1982. Paradoxically, it is after that accident that he developed his style of climbing using only his bare hands and without any security. Today, with more than 100 towers climbed, as many arrests and several stays in prison, Alain is a legend. But who’s the man behind the climber? What motivates him? Find out in this portrait full of breathtaking footage.
A breathtaking look at The French Spiderman, Alain Robert, a lone climber who scales tall buildings, bridges and cliffs all over the world. His physical training and climbing technique allows him to climb using window sills and frames. From its height of 180 meters, the Citigroup Center in Chicago will be the first of a long series of more than 170 buildings that Alain Robert will climb.
Before tackling the ascent of urban buildings, Alain Robert was considered one of the best specialists in the "climbing" of cliffs. His passion nearly cost him his life in 1982, when a fall rendered him 66% disabled. At the time the doctors were convinced that he could no longer indulge in this passion. This does not prevent him, by dint of motivation and training, from climbing more than 170 buildings around the world to date, and from soloing technical routes at his maximum level, such as "La Nuit du Lézard". (8a+) in Buoux (France), where here is "L'Ange en Décomposition", in 1991, a mythical course in the Gorges du Verdon.
Robert Alain Philippe said Alain Robert, nicknamed "Le Spiderman français" ("The French Spider-Man"), born August 7, 1962 in Digoin (Saône-et-Loire), is a high-level French climber, specializing in climbing. rock climbing in full solo (without rope) then in the climbing of buildings in full solo. Born August 7, 1962 in Digoin in Saône-et-Loire, Alain Robert spent his childhood in Valence in Drôme. As a teenager, he admired the exploits of the great contemporary mountaineers (Bonatti, Messner...) and practiced climbing on the cliffs of Vercors and Ardèche. From that time on, he integrated full soloing into his climbing practice, identical to the progressions undertaken in mountaineering. Over the years, he progressed in sport climbing and in full solo, and reached level 8 in the years 1990-1992. His performances are highly publicized and admired in the climbing world; he set many difficulty records in full solo. He realizes in particular in integral solo; La Nuit du Lézard (8a+) at Buoux in 1991 with several random movements, then considered by Alexander Huber as one of the most difficult solos in the world, and the 8b sequence at Cornas de l'Abominafreux (8a), the Abomifreux (7c) and the Abominable Finger Man (7b+)2. He was also very noticed in 1996 for the integral solo of Pol Pot (7c/8a) in the Verdon, a "morpho" route with small grips and grips, 250 meters above the ground, considered "one of the most audacious in history". In 1982, he suffered two accidents. The most serious, a fall of fifteen meters head first, during an abseiling, because of a poorly made knot, earned him six days of coma and multiple fractures to the skull, nose, wrists, elbow, pelvis and heels. A year later, however, he is climbing again. He nevertheless keeps many after-effects of this accident. From 1994, Alain Robert devoted himself to climbing buildings in full solo, that is to say the ascent of skyscrapers without no rope. His ascents are highly publicized and he becomes known to the general public. At a height of 180 meters, the Citigroup Center in Chicago will be the first of a long series of more than 170 buildings that Alain Robert will climb.
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