They always say you should chase your dreams and one brave adventurer has literally taken that concept to new heights.
Friend of UNILAD James Kingston has just achieved his dream of climbing the Eiffel Tower and he’s pretty stoked about it.
The adventurer and YouTuber has done some pretty nutty things in his time but scaling his way up the 300m tall iconic building in Paris, France might just be his craziest idea yet.
A new POV video posted to James’ YouTube channel shows his daring exploits and it probably isn’t one for anyone who’s got a fear of heights!
Explaining his thinking behind the terrifying climb, James said:
The Eiffel Tower has been one of my goals for quite a while. I was having a chat with my mate Esty about going on a trip somewhere. We decided on Paris so we booked flights and were on our way that evening.
Plan A for the Tower was to buy tickets to the second platform and climb out of one of the stairways. This immediately failed as it was just too busy. We didn’t really have a plan B so we decided to just commit to climbing right up the side from the ground & see what happens.
We started the climb at 1AM narrowly avoiding the patrolling security (which seemed more like the French army as they were in full camo and had massive guns) and wormed our way through what seemed like endless CCTV cameras. Once we reached about 20 metres up the side of the tower it appeared we’d made it through what would normally be the riskiest part of any climb. As far as I could tell, the tower was ours for the night.
After slowly making our way up through the framework of the Tower, we finally reached the top platform which was fully lit up. This is where we should have probably stopped but my curiosity got the better of me. I unlocked the door, slowly crept in and was immediately hit with the sound of a walkie talkie going absolutely mental in French. It was clear we’d been spotted so we legged it down a few storeys and found a couple of holes inside the framework that we had no choice but to hide in.
Hours went by with security going up and down with torches and they even turned on all of the tower’s lights during their search. The lights finally went off and the tower was ours again so we began the wait for sunrise. After a few more hours playing around on the tower workers and tourists started coming up in the lifts.
The whole thing sounds pretty crazy and, it turns out, James wasn’t quite done with his run-ins with the French coppers either.
He added:
We were spotted again around 9AM so we climbed down and met with security. We were handcuffed and taken to the local police station where we were held and questioned for around six hours before being released without charges (I also had to promise them I wouldn’t climb it again for 3 years). I can now officially tick the Eiffel Tower off my list.
The fact that he has a list does, of course, beg the question what massive monument he plans on climbing next but congratulations to him on pulling this off.
Rather you than us, James!
