Alain Robert, the free climber dubbed the French “Spiderman” has scaled a 48-storey skyscraper in Paris to mark his 60th birthday.
Dressed in red, Robert celebrated as he reached the top of the 613ft (187 metre) Tour TotalEnergies building, in the French capital’s La Defense business district.
“I want to send people the message that being 60 is nothing. You can still do sport, be active, do fabulous things,” he said.
“I promised myself several years ago that when I reached 60, I would climb that tower again because 60 symbolises retirement age in France and I thought that was a nice touch.”
Robert, who also wanted to use the climb to raise awareness about the need for climate change action, had already climbed the TotalEnergies tower on numerous occasions.
He began climbing in 1975, training on the cliffs near his hometown of Valence in southern France.
He took up solo climbing in 1977.
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Since then, he has climbed more than 150 towering structures around the world including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building, the Eiffel Tower, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Often climbing without permission, he has been arrested repeatedly.
Robert climbs without a harness, using only his bare hands, a pair of climbing shoes, and a bag of powdered chalk to wipe off the sweat.
