Alan Roberts

Alain "Spiderman" Robert must be the world's best known free climber. He has appeared on the tv and in the newspapers so many times, there won't be many people who have not come across him. When I talk to people about Alain, they may not recognise the name, but as soon as I mention a couple of his achievements, they all say, "oh yeah, I've seen that crazy guy!!" Paris August 14th 1998 French free climber Alain spiderman Robert climbs the 182 metres of the Framatome tower in 35 minutes. Photo courtesy of Alain Robert The story goes that Alain had always planned to be a world class climber. At the age of 12, he climbed up the outside of his apartment block to get into his house, because he had forgotten his keys. His family's apartment was on the 8th floor! Although he had learnt how to use ropes, his passion was, (and still is), for free climbing. This means no ropes, just you and what you are climbing. Make a mistake and gravity takes over. In 1982, Alain had 2 serious accidents which resulted in multiple fractures from his cranium to his heels. The French doctors told him he was now 60% disabled and that he would never climb again. How wrong could they be. Photo courtesy of Alain Robert Since then, Alain has swapped climbing mountains for climbing skyscrapers. Not always with the building owner's permission. In the early days, he found himself being arrested and thrown into jail, but that seems to have been part of the fun. Now people's thoughts have changed and he has been asked to climb several of the world's highest towers and monuments. Some of these climbs have been for charity, and he has raised a small fortune over the years. Photo courtesy of Alain Robert I could go on to list all of his amazing climbs, but that would not do his story justice. For more information click on his website below. www.alainrobert.com Many thanks to Alain Robert for his kind permission to use text and images featured on this page. For more related sites check out the Extreme Dreams Links Page