Alex Honnold is expected to take somewhere between about 1 and 4 hours to climb Taipei 101, with many predictions clustering around roughly 75–90 minutes for his actual ascent time.

Quick Scoop

  • Taipei 101 is about 508 meters (1,667 feet) tall, making it one of the tallest buildings in the world and a serious undertaking for a free solo climb.
  • Reporting suggests the climb could realistically take 2–4 hours from start to finish, accounting for difficulty, pacing, and safety considerations in a live broadcast format.
  • A popular prediction market has odds centered around about 75 minutes for how long Honnold will actually spend climbing, implying confident expectations that he’ll move fast if conditions are good.
  • Weather has already forced at least one delay of the attempt, which shows how much wind and rain could affect his speed and even whether he climbs at all on a given day.

Why the estimates vary

Different sources and observers think about slightly different “climb time” definitions:

  1. Some count the full live event window.
    • The live special is scheduled in a roughly two‑hour TV slot, which gives room for pre‑show, pauses, and a conservative upper bound on how long he might be on the wall.
  1. Others focus on continuous movement time.
    • That’s where the 75‑minute prediction comes from: people imagining Honnold climbing more or less continuously at a hard, sustained pace if everything goes smoothly.
  1. Safety and conditions can stretch it.
    • Because building facades are fully vertical, uniform, and can become slick in rain, he may slow down at key sections or briefly pause, pushing the total closer to the 2–4 hour estimate on a cautious day.

A simple way to think about it

If you picture him averaging a steady but careful pace up 508 meters of mostly vertical surface, with a few short rests for shaking out his arms and managing exposure to the wind, landing in the 1–2 hour range of actual climbing time is very plausible, while the broader 2–4 hour band covers a more conservative, TV‑friendly window and any necessary pauses.

So, in fan-forum terms:

  • “Fast, clean send” guess: about 75 minutes.
  • “Safe, TV‑window” guess: 2–4 hours from start to finish of the ascent.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.