One of the adventure sports that has grown in prominence over the last decade is free climbing. While it appears to be an intriguing opportunity, the risk-to-reward ratio is highly disproportional. A free climber named Adam Lockwood, who also goes by the YouTube handle Nuisance, recently scaled a crane placed up at a height of 1280 feet in Dubai. Eventually, he noticed that the crane was totally smeared in grease, implying that he was in grave danger at any point throughout the climb. Yet, the climber completed the ascent and later revealed this heart-stopping clip in July 2022- which is not for the faint of heart.
The free climbing video on YouTube was misleadingly captioned ‘Hanging off the tallest crane in Dubai after getting caught,’ and Nuisance revealed that the climb was initially stopped a couple of times by workers within the structure. He did, however, manage to sneak out and continue climbing towards the end. “I didn’t want to trek up 77 flights of stairs in 45-degree heat.” I didn’t expect to see anyone on the elevator. He begins yelling at me in Arabic. I used Google Translate to explain that I was working on site and had forgotten something (clearly not true, but it’s always worth a shot), so he sent me down the stairs on my own.”
A free climbing expert nearly falls off a 1200-foot crane in Dubai.
“He showed me the stairs, watched me walk down a floor, then left,” the free climber added. I went up the other stairs, my blag worked.” As it turned out, this wasn’t the only worker who had stopped him. In fact, during the course of two hours, this free climbing specialist had to take a detour and change stairwells eight times. “As I reached the top, I realized I had only packed one GoPro battery, and it was on 20%, meaning I could only video for a few minutes,” Lockwood said. In one of the videos. With one hand, the free climber dangled from the structure. After that, he hung upside down by looping his legs through the bar.
Lockwood later pointed to the camera, which was in his filthy hands. Initially, he thought the dirt was nothing more than desert dust. But, he later discovered that the crane’s bars had been greased. Fortunately, the realization struck him while he was safely on the ground, rather than while he was defying death 1200 feet in the air.
He went on to say that he would never do such a terrifying climb again in his life. “Well, I’m not going to do it again.” “On my life, I’m not doing it again,” the free climber said of his daring. “When I first saw the clip, I said to myself, this is it, this is the most spectacular thing I’ve done.”
Lockwood was still able to scale the rusted-out crane.
Lockwood was well aware that free climbing is exceedingly perilous. “The fact that I hung from Dubai’s highest crane on the doorstep of the world’s tallest skyscraper is something exceptional,” he said, “and I feel that it was definitely worth the risk and the penalties if I was discovered.” I wore a hard hat to fit in as I walked past 100 workers and slipped out the back gate unnoticed. Mounting the jib, I rapidly noticed that the entire crane was covered in oil that I couldn’t see. At first, I believed it was dust from the desert, but inspecting my hands revealed that it was grease, my feet and hands slipping on everything I touched. I had four close calls while hiking up, and I had a couple more on the way down.”
Despite the obvious dangers of free climbing, Lockwood remains undeterred. “It doesn’t seem like much hanging off things, it feels odd to be hung that high with no safety, but like all my other hangs, my brain is blank, my heartbeat doesn’t go up, and it feels almost serene.” It’s something I know I can do that 99 percent of the world can’t and never will, so I feel obligated to use my talent and have fun while doing it.
I enjoy seeing things from a great height, I enjoy having my body hanging hundreds of meters in the air, I enjoy the trials of infiltrating safe locations to achieve these aims, and it’s something that has kept me alive since I began, and I don’t think I can give it up. I was so fatigued that I slept the entire day when I came back to my lodging.”
