Dubai, March 29: A French skyscraper climber who calls himself 'Spiderman' scrambled his way to the top of the world's tallest tower in Dubai.
Alain Robert began his ascent of the 2,717-tall Burj Khalifa just before sunset and said before he began that he expected his climb to take six or seven hours.As night fell, a row of powerful spotlights shone on the side of the tower to light the way.
Unlike his many previous climbs, the 48-year-old daredevil is using a rope and harness to comply with organizers' requirements in the Gulf sheikdom.An ambulance, with a stretcher at the ready, was parked alongside other emergency vehicles at the Burj's base.
Robert has climbed more than 70 skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, Chicago's Willis Tower and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, according to his website. He conquered Taiwan's Taipei 101, which before the Burj was the world's tallest building, in 2004. The tower's owner, Emaar Properties, said the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa has 160 habitable storeys.
Strapped to a safety harness tethered more than 100 stories up, Robert began his climb up the silvery, glass-covered Burj at around 6pm.
He hoisted himself up along a central column, mostly free of decorative rows of pipes that could slow his ascent.
He did not appear to use the rope to pull himself up, but instead gripped the glass and narrow metal ridges like a rock climber with his feet and bare hands.Hundreds of spectators crowded plazas outside shopping centres and restaurants at the tower's sprawling base.
Robert stayed in a Dubai hotel before the climb, doing push-ups, pull-ups and stretches, and loading up on carb-filled foods such as pasta in a room overlooking the target of his latest adventure.Emaar Properties have not commented on the climb which 'Spiderman' is due to complete this evening.
