It was only in June 1994 when an Italian film documentary asked him to climb a building for a documentary called No Limits that he began. By the end of the 80s he was doing this without safety equipment on some of the hardest rock climbs in the world. His career did not begin with climbing buildings however, but with rock climbing. “One day I may be the guest of a sheikh in the Middle East staying in a hotel costing $30,000 (£26,000) per night and then I can find myself in a hell-hole prison, such as the one in Malaysia.”īut still Robert, who now lives in Bali, continues to climb as it is “like the air he breathes”. Robert climbed the highest building in the world – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – in 2011 (Photo: Emmanuel Aguirre/Getty) “I was going to jail but also to court, sometimes climbing officially and meeting presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens, but also prisoners as I’ve been arrested more than 200 times,” he explains. Some of his climbs are legal and sponsored by brands, but others he undertakes independently without payment and at risk of imprisonment. He was arrested by police who set up a cordon around the building. In 2018, he ascended the Salesforce Tower (formerly known as the Heron Tower) in the City of London.

Known as the “French Spider-man” and considered the veteran of the sport, Robert’s urban climbing career has not been without its issues.

But over a period of 25 years he has now scaled 167 skyscrapers – holding the world record for most buildings scaled – including some of the world’s tallest: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828m or 2717ft) in 2011 and also the Petronas towers (452m or 1483ft) in Kuala Lumpur in 2009. For 60-year-old Alain Robert, from Digoin, France, a life of free-climbing skyscrapers, ascending to the top of tall buildings without ropes or safety equipment, was never the plan.

Guy free climbing salesforce tower