When we took our Chicago’s Shoreline Sightseeing Architecture River Tour, our tour guide gave us a lot of back history about the town that definitely added more depth to our Chicago experience. For example, when he pointed out the Sears Tower (now named the Willis Tower, but most Chicagoans refuse to call it that), not only did he mention that it had been the world’s tallest building for 25 years, but he also took the opportunity to tell us about Dan Goodwin, a.k.a SpiderDan.
SpiderDan has had a long and spectacular career as a climber, and is an active, yet controversial, member of the rock-climbing community to this day. He is credited with several first ascents and free solo climbs on a variety of climbing routes, but he’s best known for having climbed 11 skyscrapers between 1981 and 2014. His very first such climb was up the Sears Tower on Memorial Day, 1981.
Clad in a Spiderman suit (hence the nickname SpiderDan), and using only suction cups, a camming device, and sky hooks, he managed to scale the 110 story building in 7 hours. He did it despite Chicago firefighters’ multiple attempts to stop him. He did it despite high winds and extremely slippery surfaces. He said he did it to shine a light on the inadequacies of high-rise fire fighting and rescue, because he had witnessed the MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas the year before.
When SpiderDan showed up in Chicago again, this time to climb John Hancock Tower, firefighters were livid. They tried approaching him on a window washing machine. They hit him with high pressure hoses. They also broke out several windows and attempted to dislodge him with grappling hooks. Finally, the mayor stepped in and let him finish the climb. Her decision most likely had a lot to do with the fact that causing SpiderDan to plunge to his death would have been bad optics for the city.
Check out this article from the Chicago Tribune to see some amazing photos of his Chicago climbs. He has also climbed the World Trade Center and Toronto’s CN Tower (twice in one day!). You have to give this guy his due. His antics were impressive, if foolhardy.
Recently, Dan was interviewed by CTV News. He told them he could no longer endorse free soloing. He says he has known some of the best free climbers out there, and most of them are dead. He also said he hopes to still be climbing, with ropes, when he’s 100. At the age of 67, and from the looks of his official website, he seems to still be going strong.
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