What Happens if Alex Honnold Falls During Taipei Climb? Netflix Exec Reveals Plan for Worst Case Scenerio
Alex Honnold is one of the world’s most famous free solo climbers and he will be climbing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 as part of Netflix’s Skyscraper Live special.
The 40-year-old climber will be going up the tower without ropes or a safety net. Obviously, no one wants to see him fall, but there’s always the possibility that the unthinkable happens.
Both Alex and Netflix execs have commented on what would happen in a tragic moment.
Keep reading to find out more…
“It’s obviously a conversation that everybody has,” Netflix unscripted series VP Jeff Gaspin told Variety. “You can imagine what we’ll do. It’s nothing momentous. We’ll cut away. We have a 10-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen. But we will cut away, and it’s as simple as that.”
“I think the main thing is, we trust Alex,” Plimsoll Prods.’ Grant Mansfield added. “As he says in a number of his packages, he doesn’t have some kind of a death wish. He is an incredibly talented climber and an elite sports person. It would be an insult to say he takes mad risks. I don’t think he’s ever denied that he feels fear, but he’s found a way of processing it and managing it. The comfort I will take in that control room is that I know we’ve got the show very well-planned. And if he gets on that building to climb it, Alex will be completely confident he can do the climb. And if he’s completely confident, we’re completely confident.”
Alex also opened up about death in an interview with The New York Times. He was asked if he ever discusses it with his wife Sanni.
“You mean what happens if I die?” he said. “I mean not really. We don’t talk about it a ton because obviously it’s upsetting for her. We occasionally joke — you know, gallows humor — about how long she would wait to start dating again. How hard it would be to find somebody with the kids, and all that. But that’s just us joking around.”
“I mean, you can’t go soloing … every time you go soloing in the mountains, you consider … that things can end quickly,” he added.
Get the scoop on Alex‘s payday for the special.