‘Spiderman’ Climbs World’s Tallest Skyscraper

Alain Robert took just over six hours to scale the façade of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

With an ambulance and stretcher waiting below, Robert completed a perilous climb up the side of the skyscraper Monday to add yet another record to his daredevil career. In 2004, the 48-year-old who calls himself “Spiderman” scaled Taiwan’s Taipei 101 tower, which was the world’s tallest building until the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa was completed last year. Unlike on most of his climbs, Robert consented to organizers’ demands that he wear a harness and safety rope, but he didn’t appear to need them, climbing freehand up the structure and then hanging from its topmost spire as crowds gathered below. Since 1997, Robert has conquered some of the world’s most iconic structures, including the Empire State Building and Sears Tower.