French "Spider-Man" or Alain Robert Nabbed by Police on Top of Building in Sydney

Alain Robert, dubbed "Spider-Man" for his gravity-defying feats, is a French free climber who was arerested on the roof of a Sydney, Australia skyscraper today. He was arrested after he had scaled the 57-story building using just his bare hands and a bag of chalk dust.

[caption id="attachment_7668" align="alignleft" width="282" caption="Alain Robert"][/caption]

Robert is 48 years old and he has been climbing for years. He ascended the 492-foot, twin-towered Lumiere apartment building in downtown Sydney in less than 30 minutes. He did the climb without any safety equipment or ropes.

On the way up, the French climber unfurled a banner which advertised the climate change site onhundredmonths.org which claims that there's only a limited amount of time left before man-made greenhouse gasses in the Earth's atmosphere reach an irreversibly dangerous level.

Onlookers were astounded. They clapped and whooped at Robert's exhibition of urban climbing, also known as buildering. It amazed people to see him climb so high without falling, and without safety equipment.

Sydney police, however, weren't as astounded or entertained as they were determined to prosecute him.

See a video of his climb and continue reading on the next page.


Police nabbed him when he arrived at the top of the building. He is being charged with risking the safety of another by climbing a building and entering enclosed land.

He has been granted bail and will appear in court on Friday, September 3.

This is not the first time that Robert has gotten into trouble with authorities for his outrageous stunts. Last year, Robert was fined $670 for illegally climbing the Royal Bank of Scotland building in central Sydney and in 2003 he was arrested for climbing up the iconic Harbour Bridge.

When asked about the trouble he got into for climbing the Royal Bank of Scotland building in Sydney, Robert said that he did not believe that he was risking the safety of others. This actually makes sense, who's safety is he risking, if not his own?

Robert has conquered structures in places ranging from New York to Sydney, buildings from the Harbour Bridge to the Sears Tower.

He discovered his talent for free climbing when he was 12 years old. He was locked out of his parents' apartment in Valence, in southeastern France. Instead of waiting for his parents to come home, he scaled the eight stories and jumped in through an open window.

Below is a video of his most recent stunt.