Alex Honnold says he’s being paid an ‘embarrassing amount’ to free solo Taipei skyscraper on Netflix

Alex Honnold would’ve scaled Taipei 101, the world’s 11th-tallest skyscraper, for free. But because he’s performing the daring free solo climb live for the entertainment of millions, he’s revealed he will be paid an “embarrassing amount” of money.

Tonight on Netflix’s Skyscraper Live, the professional rock climber, 40, will attempt to scale the 1,667-foot, 101-story structure, located in the capital of Taiwan, without safety gear or ropes.

Speaking to the New York Times, Honnold was asked if this stunt is his biggest payday.

“Maybe. It’s less than my agent aspired to,” he said. “I mean, I would do it for free. If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing. I mean, just sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane.”

Honnold continued: “And so, you know, if there wasn’t the whole spectacle around it, and I just had the opportunity to go do it by myself, I’d be fine with that. I would do that, but in this case, there is a spectacle. I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m getting paid for the spectacle. I’m climbing the building for free.”

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

When questioned about the exact amount, Honnold wouldn’t say. “It’s an embarrassing amount,” he admitted.

When pressed further, he added: “Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount. You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170 million contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about.”

After the interviewer suggested $10 million, Honnold responded: “No! So in that case, yeah, an embarrassingly small amount.” According to the NYT, two sources with direct knowledge of the arrangement said that Honnold will be paid in the mid-six figures.

Honnold is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest rock climbers, with 30 years of experience. He rose to prominence in 2017 when he became the first person ever to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a feat that was documented in the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.

However, this new challenge stands as his first “big handmade structure,” and if anything goes wrong, it could be fatal.

“If something happens, I would die, though actually, on this particular building, that’s not even totally true because there are balconies every few floors,” he recently told CNN. “The geometry of the building, the shape of the building is such that you actually could fall in tons of places and not actually die, which makes it in some ways safer than a lot of rock-climbing objectives.”

Skyscaper Live streams tonight on Netflix, beginning at 8pm E.T. Follow the climb live here.