Alain Robert has scaled many of the world’s tallest buildings, often without permission. Dressed in red on Saturday, Robert raised his arms high as he reached the top of the 187m Tour Total building, which towers over the French capital’s La Defense business district. “I want to send people the message that being 60 is nothing. You can still play sports, be active, do great things,” said Robert, whose 60th birthday was last month. Robert wanted to show people that 60 is “nothing”. Photo: Michel Euler/AP “I promised myself several years ago that when I reached 60, I would climb this tower again, because 60 is the retirement age in France, and I thought it was a nice touch.” Robert, who also wanted to use the climb to raise awareness of the need for climate action, had already climbed the Tour Total on several 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 and quickly became a top climber. Since then, he has scaled more than 150 towering structures around the world, including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world – the Eiffel Tower and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. He has been arrested many times. He climbs without a harness, using only his bare hands, a pair of climbing shoes and a bag of chalk powder to wipe away the sweat. In October 2018, he was arrested after climbing London’s 202m (662ft) Salesforce Tower – formerly Heron Tower – without a rope or other safety equipment. In September 2019, Robert was arrested by German police after climbing a high-rise in Frankfurt. It took Robert, then 57, 20 minutes to climb the 153m Skyper building in the heart of Germany’s financial capital. Robert climbs without a rope, just shoes and chalk. Photo: Michel Euler/AP Robert is among the greatest climbers in history and claimed that his laser focus is the secret to his abilities. “In my game,” Robert said in April, “there’s life on one side, death on the other.” The choice is simple: “It’s either fear or focus. “Before a climb, I get scared,” he admits. But as soon as his fingers touch the first hold, the fear evaporates. “I’m becoming a different guy [and] enter another world’.
