The Real Spiderman

Meet Alain Robert, the real Spiderman.  Like the other superhero, Alain likes to climb tall structures.  However, he doesn't need to cast a web in order to climb - he does it with his bare hands.

Alain's climbing career began at the age of 12, when he forgot the keys to his apartment on the eighth floor. Too impatient to wait for his his parents to return, he decided to climb the exterior of the building and get in from the patio.

At the age of 19 and 20 he suffered two major falls, breaking several bones. Doctors told him he was sixty percent handicapped and could never climb again. However, six months later Alain was climbing again.

Over the years, Alain has climbed many famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Opera House in Sydney.   He has also scaled some of the tallest skyscrapers in the world including the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia and the Sears Tower in the USA, which ended up being one of his most challenging climbs. Nearing the top of the 110-story building, he encountered thick fog that covered the glass and metal wall of the last 20 floors with moisture, making it very slippery. Slowly and steadily, he managed to overcome it and get to the top.

While Alain has a huge fan following throughout the world, he is not very popular with the police, since what he does is so dangerous. He therefore has to be very secretive about which buiding he is going to conquer next.  He simply shows up early in the morning and starts climbing. So the next time you are walking near a tall building, make sure you look around - Spiderman may be in town!

Meanwhile, enjoy the two videos of this amazing man, the first one is a recent climb he did in London, which got him arrested, and the other, a slightly older but equally amazing climb in France.

Sources: Wikipedia.org, alainrobert.com