After climbing more than 70 of the world’s tallest structures, Alain Robert aka spiderman arrived to Beirut to climb the Phoenicia Intercontinental hotel tower using his bare hand without ropes!
The event was set today at 6:00PM and I heard about it by chance on Mix FM. I thought it would be cool to go and shoot some photos of spiderman but unfortunately I was wrong… As soon as I arrived in my car near the Phoenicia at around 6:10, I found hundreds of cars stuck in a traffic jam on the road passing by the Phoenicia and leading to Saint George.
Reason? Not because there was too many people, but apprently the internal security forces have blocked the road and stopped cars from proceeding towards Ain El-Mrayyseh. I didn’t understand why they did that especially that Alain Robert was climbing a tower that is far away from the road….
I was also surprised by how the ISF took actions to make that event a success! As I know, in almost every other country the cops arrest Alain after he does his stunts because it is so unsafe… Check this wikipedia page and see for yourself. The ISF here were actually amused by what he did.
Anyway, at the end after being stuck for more than an hour in that traffic jam without even facing the building he was climbing, I returned back with no photos…
Update: Thanks to Dona, now I’m posting 2 videos of the event.
Just wanted to clarify 1 point, Alain Robert is arrested when he’s climbing illegally and when he doesn’t have the prior approvals to do so. In the case of the Beirut stunt, he had already all the needed approvals (authorities + Phoenicia hotel) so that’s why the ISF were doing their best to help, but what can you do when there is such a large crowd in one meeting point…
Anyway it was a great show, you can get a glimpse at it at the following link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA9a8Dzqv10
Enjoy
Thanks for your comment Dona, I never knew one can get an approval here in Beirut to climb a building…
As for blocking the road on the seaside, I really don’t see the point in that.
And thanks for the video, I will be posting it as an update.
yeah you can get approvals especially if it is a private area like a hotel (of course it is better if you’re a pro :))
i found another cool video of the event for those who missed it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8t6TqnLP-8
Thank you once again Dona, I added the second video.
Ah.. Very Intresting… too bad u couldn’t watch it live ! 🙁
It must have been an easy climb for him 😛 compared to what he usually does
barely some stretching i guess haha