The number in Alex Honnold's bank account isn't exactly skyrocketing as high as he'd hoped. In fact, the professional rock climber revealed that his payday for scaling the 1,667-foot skyscraper, Taipei 101, without any safety equipment, which was broadcast live on Netflix on Jan. 25 in Taiwan, was "embarrassingly low," especially compared to what other professional athletes make.
"Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it's an embarrassingly small amount," he told the New York Times in an interview published on Jan. 23. "You know, Major League Baseball players get contracts worth $170 million. It's like someone you haven't even heard of and that nobody cares about."
While he didn't share his exact compensation, he did earn "mid-six figures" for climbing one of the tallest buildings in the world, according to the New York Times. That being said, Alex, 40, noted that he would have been content to complete the death-defying feat for no money at all.
"If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do it," he explained, "I would do it because I know I can, and it would be absolutely amazing."
The athlete—who shares daughters June, 3, and Alice, 23 months old, with wife Sanni McCandless—summitted the 101-story building in just over an hour and a half. And this wouldn't be his first free-solo climb. Indeed, the dad of two made history in 2017 by becoming the first person to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without safety ropes, which was chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.
As for why he felt compelled to climb Taipei 101 specifically? Well, that dream first began over a decade ago.
"I actually scouted it for a different TV thing that fell apart in 2013," he told Jay Shetty during the Jan. 7 episode of the Jay Shetty Podcast. "So, for the last 12 years I've known that it was possible. The building is honestly uniquely suited for climbing."
When asked outright why he would attempt the nerve-wracking climb at all, it was a no-brainer.
"Why? Because it's awesome," he explained. "Because I get to, basically. Because it will be so much fun."
He added, "It's really hard to get permission to climb a building and if you get permission, you kind of have to say 'yes.'"
