Alain Robert

His amazing life story is truly inspirational. In 1982 when he was 19, he was a famous climber in France, regularly featuring on the covers of its national climbing magazines. However, a major fall in that year, while assisting a group of young climbers, left him with many broken bones and in a coma. After months in hospital undergoing numerous surgical procedures, his surgeon, Dr. Hoel, who was a climber himself told him he would never climb again. The Doctor said that in all his years of practice, he had never seen such shattered hands.

His career was in ruins. In fact, he was so weakened from the many injuries, that he couldn’t even lift a cup of coffee. Furthermore, the fall had left him permanently 66% disabled and suffering from vertigo and epilepsy. He suffers these same disabilities to this day, making his achievements even more astonishing. He figured that if he had 34% of his body still functioning, then he would try to get the maximum from it. 

Incredibly, despite his disabilities, this phenomenal perseverance had turned him into an even better climber than he was before his accident. He was able to return to free-solo climbing mountains, cliffs and gorges. Then in 1995 in the USA he climbed his first skyscraper. Alain has since gone on to climb around 200 of the tallest skyscrapers on earth.