Google CEO Sundar Pichai has shared two photos taken by Googlers, offering a rare view of history in the making. The photographs, taken by Google employees from their office on the 75th floor, are of climber Alex Honnold who scaled the exterior of Taiwan’s iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper without ropes or safety gear. One of the photos show the world’s ‘most famous’ climber standing thousands of feet above the city streets.“A few photos from Googlers with the ultimate view of @alexhonnold ‘s free-solo of Taipei 101 from our office on the 75th,” Pichai said in the caption on Instagram. Apart from sharing these photos, Pichai also took the opportunity to poke fun at his own previous visits to the 508-meter landmark. “Last time I visited Taipei 101, I just took the elevator up. Apparently there’s a different route. Congrats Alex on an amazing achievement,” wrote on Instagram.

Alex Honnold becomes first to climb Taipei 101 rope-free

Honnold became a household name after his rope-free climbing of Yosemite’s El Capitan – known as one of the world’s ultimate big-wall rock climbing destinations. With Taipei 101 scaling, he became the first person to climb Taiwan’s skyscraper without using any safety equipment.He successfully navigated the steel and glass exterior of the building on Wednesday (January 28). The building is designed to resemble a bamboo stalk, and presented a unique challenge due to its stepped levels and high-altitude winds.Honnold took about an hour and a half to complete the 1,667-foot (508-metre) climb, and the event was shown live on the internet.The climb was originally scheduled for Sunday (January 25) but was delayed by several days due to bad weather conditions, which is a critical safety factor when climbing glass surfaces without a harness. After the climb, Honnold told CNN that the challenges in climbing a building are different from scaling a rock wall. And that he wanted to scale a skyscraper for about a decade.