French spiderman climbs world's tallest building
Daredevil climber Alain Robert, known as the French Spiderman, defied stiff winds and rain to climb the world's tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101 Saturday.
Robert, dressed in a red rain jacket, tights and climbing shoes, shimmied up ropes hung down the sides of the 101-story, 1,667-foot office tower, reaching the top in around four hours.
"It was a very big moment and I felt a lot of satisfaction as I was already so tired and nearly all of my muscles were painful. I felt completely relieved," said Robert after taking the ride down in one of the tower's elevators, the world's fastest.
Several hundred onlookers and shoppers gathered at the base of the tower watching and cheering Robert's progress via live images beamed onto a large television screen.
At times he disappeared from view as clouds whipped past the top of the tower enveloping the upper levels.
The 42-year-old Frenchman has scaled scores of well-known structures around the world including the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower -- often without permission or any safety equipment or ropes.
This time Robert was wearing a harness attached to safety ropes for the entire climb. He used the ropes to pull himself up most of the way, using his hands and feet to climb up the walls for only short sections.
"Everybody knows me throughout the world for my ascents climbing free solo without using safety devices, just with my bare hands, but this time the game was a bit different," Robert said.
He said the management had requested he wear the ropes and safety equipment, which had also become necessary due to rain making the windows and frames very slippery.
Robert said he was hopeful of returning to attempt the climb without any ropes.
The $1.7 billion Taipei 101 last year surpassed the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which Robert has also scaled, as the world's tallest building.
The shopping mall at the base of Taipei 101 has already opened for business, but the building will be officially opened on New Year's eve.
法國蜘蛛人攀上臺(tái)北世界第一高樓
英勇大膽的攀爬者亞倫·羅伯特素有“法國蜘蛛人”之稱。上周六(12月25日)，他不畏寒風(fēng)冷雨，成功地爬上了世界第一高樓——臺(tái)北101大樓。
羅伯特穿著紅色防雨外套、緊身衣褲和攀登鞋，借助辦公大樓側(cè)面垂下來的繩索爬上了1667英尺高、101層的大樓，歷時(shí)約四小時(shí)。
“那個(gè)時(shí)刻太重要了，我感到非常滿足，因?yàn)槲乙呀?jīng)很累了，幾乎每一塊肌肉都疼痛不堪。我覺得如釋重負(fù)。”羅伯特在乘坐樓內(nèi)電梯下來后這樣說。他乘坐的電梯是全世界速度最快的。
幾百名旁觀者和購物者聚集在大樓地下，通過大屏幕上的直播關(guān)注著羅伯特攀登大樓的進(jìn)展并為他喝彩。
有幾次他在人們的視野中消失了，原來有云朵突然飄過塔樓頂端，遮住了大樓上端。
這位現(xiàn)年42歲的法國人曾經(jīng)在世界各地攀爬過好幾十座著名的建筑，包括紐約帝國大廈和埃菲爾鐵塔，而且常常是在未經(jīng)有關(guān)方面許可的情況下攀爬，也不借助任何安全設(shè)備或繩索。
這次，在整個(gè)攀爬過程中，羅伯特身上系了一條連著安全繩索的背帶。大部分時(shí)間他利用繩索把自己拉上去，只有很少的時(shí)間是徒手攀爬的。
“世界上人人都知道我的大名，因?yàn)槲遗逝罆r(shí)是不靠安全設(shè)備的，而且是獨(dú)自一人徒手攀爬，但是這次有點(diǎn)不一樣。”羅伯特說。
他說，大樓的物業(yè)管理之前要求他帶上繩索和安全裝備，這些東西也確實(shí)派上了用場，因?yàn)橐粓鲇晔勾髽堑拇安ＡШ痛翱蚨甲兊锰貏e滑。
羅伯特表示，希望以后有機(jī)會(huì)嘗試不用任何繩索重新爬上這座高樓。
造價(jià)17億美元的臺(tái)北101大樓去年剛剛落成，它超過了吉隆坡的雙子塔，成為世界第一高樓。羅伯特曾攀上過雙子塔。
臺(tái)北101大樓底層的購物中心已經(jīng)開業(yè)了，但是整座大樓要到新年前夕才正式開業(yè)。
