LOVE IS IN THE DARE
YOU South Africa|1 August 2024
Thesé two Russian daredevil fame and each other onthe rooftops of the worlds loftiest skyscrapers
COLIN HENDRICKS
LOVE IS IN THE DARE

FALLING for someone can give you the kind of high that's hard to beat but these two have taken the blood-pumping, spirit-soaring feeling that love can give you to a whole new level.

No high is high enough for them, no feat too terrifying, no stunt too daunting and no skyscraper too scary for what they have in mind: posing for selfies packed with PDAs while they're seconds away from possible death.

There are no ropes, harnesses or safety nets involved when Russian daredevils Angela Nikolau (31) and Ivan Beerkus (30) barrel up buildings, pull themselves up poles and climb cranes. And when they reach the highest point, she stands on one leg or he lifts her up, his grip the only thing preventing her from plummeting to the ground.

At a perch so lofty it's hard to make out the people below, they give each other a kiss, stamping their mark on a relationship built on the search for the next adrenaline rush.

Angela and Ivan are the subjects of new Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, which tells the story of their attempt to climb the Merdeka 118 building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This building is 118 storeys high - the equivalent of two Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other - and the couple manage to evade the building's security personnel to climb to the tip of the building's spire.

Love is literally in the air - but also in the shadow of death. "If he were to stumble, I would tumble into the depths," Angela admits.

Vanja, as she calls him, holds her life in his hands but she trusts him enough to do it over and over again.

THRILL-SEEKERS like Angela and Ivan are called rooftoppers and there are terrifying tales of climbs that have ended in tragedy.

In July last year French rooftopper Remi Lucidi scaled a skyscraper in Hong Kong and slipped on the way up. The last time he was seen alive was when he knocked on a window on the 68th floor, asking for help because he knew he was in trouble.

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