Free climber didn't realise crane had been covered in grease before scaling 1,200ft above Dubai
A free climber has spoken out after he climbed 1,280ft up a crane in Dubai, only to realise it was covered in grease.
British free climber Adam Lockwood went to great lengths to gain access to the huge crane, even posing as a construction worker.
However, when he scaled his way up a residential skyscraper called Il Primo in Dubai he made a horrifying discovery.
If it's fairly self-explanatory, but don't ever try this one at home - or anywhere else for that matter. Prepare to feel your stomach drop:
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Lockwood - who also goes by the name Nuisance on YouTube - posted a video to his page titled 'Hanging off the tallest crane in Dubai (390m) after getting caught'.
The video explains how he nearly didn't make it up the crane as a result of bumping into someone in the elevator who started 'shouting' at him in Arabic.
In the footage he says: "I didn't want to walk up 77 floors in the 45 degree heat. I didn't think anyone would be in the elevator."
However, after chatting 'some s**t' he ended up finding another way up - although, given what happened next, he may've lived to regret that.
The free climber recalls: "I used Google Translate to explain how I was working on site and forgot something (obviously not true but it’s always worth a try) so he sent me down the stairs, on my own.
"He showed me the stairs, watched me walk down a floor and left. I changed to the opposite stairwell and carried on going up, my blag worked."
As he walked up, he could hear workers ‘every few floors’ and had to change stairwells eight times over the course of two hours.
"When I reached the top I realised I had only brought one GoPro battery, and it was on 20 percent, meaning I could only film for a few minutes," Lockwood, from Manchester, said.
The YouTuber then cuts to the nail-biting footage of himself climbing on the structure and playing about – at one point dangling from one hand, before looping his legs over a bar and hanging upside down.
He also shows the camera his mucky hands, having initially believed the dirt was simply desert dust – only to later realise as the sun came up that the bars of the crane had been covered in ‘grease’.
About 1,280ft above Dubai, the free climber found himself dangling with his hands and feet 'slipping on everything' he touched. *Gulps*
Thankfully, Lockwood managed to get himself down to the ground all in one piece.
Speaking after the daredevil stunt, Lockwood said: "When I first looked at the footage, I was thinking to myself, 'this is it, this is the most incredible thing I've done'.
"The fact I hung off the tallest crane in Dubai on the doorstep of the world's tallest building is something special and I feel like it was definitely worth the risk and legal consequences if I was caught.
"I put a hard hat on to blend in whilst walking past 100 workers and slipped out the back gate without being noticed. Climbing up the jib, I quickly realised the whole crane was covered in grease that I couldn't even see, at first I thought it was dust from the desert but checking my hands it was grease, feet and hands slipping on everything I touched.
"I had four close calls whilst climbing up and coming down I had a few close calls too."
Lockwood added: "Hanging off things doesn’t feel like much, it feels surreal to be suspended 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 peaceful.
“It’s something I know I can do and that 99 per cent of the world can’t and never will do, so I feel obliged to use my ability and enjoy doing it in the process.
"I love seeing things from height, I love having my body suspended hundreds of meters in the sky, I love the challenges of infiltrating secure places to achieve these goals and it’s something that has kept me alive since I started, and I don’t think I can give it up."
However, despite being proud of the feat, he admits he won't be repeating the same exact stunt anytime soon again.
He resolved: "On my life, I’m not doing that again."
Topics: Social Media, World News, YouTube, UK News
Claire Reid