RISKING EVERYTHING

His driving need to climb the world's highest buildings means he's constantly putting his life in danger or facing the threat of arrest. But British daredevil free-climber George King says there's no point trying to stop him  

- SIMON USBORNE

HE WAS nearing the 70th floor of Lotte World Tower in Seoul, more than halfway up the world’s sixth-tallest building. Wearing only shorts, shoes and a para chute on his back, George King was determined to climb right to the very top.

The Korean skyscraper is comparable in shape to The Shard, the 310-metre London landmark that turned George’s passion into a precarious living when he made headline news after climbing it in 2019. But at 555 metres, the Lotte World Tower, which was finished in 2016, would be a much bigger test.

The British daredevil free climber spent six months planning his biggest stunt yet.

A key point in this plan was to make a clean getaway. After reaching the building’s summit, 123 floors above the streets of Seoul, he would jump, taking less than a minute to glide back down, as far from the tower as his canopy would take him.

He would then don a disguise (or at least a cap and some actual clothes) and jump on a plane back to London before anyone could identify him.

George (24) was sweating profusely as he climbed the tower’s west face early one Monday morning in June. Following his every move was a drone camera, deployed by his sponsor, a UK vape brand that was paying him to attempt the dangerous climb.

He was making good progress, until, not far above the halfway point, he spotted two anxious faces a few floors above him and to his right.

A man and woman wearing hard hats and high-visibility vests were gripping the sides of a maintenance cradle as it and its crane emerged from a large hatch in the building.

Nobody had previously attempted to intercept George during a climb, for fear of causing him to fall.