After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney
Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the
world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf
emirate of Dubai.
Alain Robert, 48, is due Monday to climb the exterior of the
skyscraper which stands 828-metres (2,717-feet) tall, as part of an
"Education Without Borders" conference for which it is being used
as a venue, organisers said.
The climber, whose nickname comes from wearing the outfit of the
fictional superhero while scaling the tallest of the tall around
the globe, usually works without a safety harness, relying on bare
hands and sturdy footing.
In Dubai, however, he will resort to a rope and harness,
organisers said.
"The problem in Dubai is the hot weather (of) up to 40 degrees
(Celsius, 104 Fahrenheit)," he said back in January 2010 when he
announced his ambition to step up to the challenge.
"My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth. For me, climbing
is as important as eating and breathing. Climbing skyscrapers is my
lifetime love and passion," he said.
Robert has climbed more than 100 of the world's tallest
buildings, including the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur,
Sears Tower in the US city of Chicago and the 88-storey Jin Mao
Building in Shanghai, China.
A Malaysian court fined Robert after he scrambled up the
Petronas Twin Towers, which also has 88 floors, in September 2009
with his bare hands in less than two hours.