Free Climber, Alex Honnold, Who Just Climbed That Skyscraper In Taipei Talks About How Much He Got Paid For The Stunt

Alex Honnold just casually reminded everyone that he is built very differently.

The legendary American climber recently revealed that he was paid what he called an “embarrassing amount” of money to scale Taipei 101 for a Netflix project, even though he says he would have done the climb for free.

Honnold, 40, climbed the iconic 1,667 foot skyscraper in 1 hour, 31 minutes, and 35 seconds. The feat was filmed for Netflix and instantly joined the long list of things most people would never attempt under any circumstances.

In an interview with The New York Times, Honnold was asked if the climb was his biggest payday. His response was peak Honnold.

“Maybe… I would do it for free,” he said.

When pressed on the actual number, Honnold refused to give a figure but made it clear it was nowhere near what people might expect for such a high risk, headline grabbing stunt.

“I’m not gonna say. It’s an embarrassing amount,” he said, adding that compared to mainstream sports salaries, it was “embarrassingly small.”

The Times tried to guess. Ten million dollars?

“No!” Honnold replied, laughing at the idea. Which pretty much told everyone everything they needed to know.

According to the New York Times, the number is believed to be somewhere around $500,000. That might sound huge to most people, but in a world where athletes can make that in a single game or appearance, it’s surprisingly modest for climbing one of the tallest buildings on Earth.