‘French Spiderman’ keeps climbing

ALAIN Robert, sometimes known as the “French Spiderman” for climbing skyscrapers world worldwide, is still defying gravity at the age of 55.

He scaled the summit of the fourth-tallest building in Paris’s modern business district on Wednesday after evading security officers who had thwarted an earlier attempt.

A hobby that started at 11 years old has taken Mr Robert to more than 150 skyscrapers around the world, including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, the Eiffel Tower, and the Sydney Opera House.

It took Mr Robert just over an hour to scale to the top of the 187metre high Tour Total, which houses some of the offices of the French energy group of the same name. He has accomplished the feat twice in the past.

Using only climbing shoes and chalk, he clung to the window ledges to lift himself up past the tower’s 48 floors, cheered on by office workers-turned-spectators in La Defense.