Free Climber Realises Crane Is Covered In Grease After Scaling 1,200ft Above Dubai

A British free climber posed as a construction worker to sneak to the top of a skyscraper and dangle from a gut-churning height above Dubai with just one hand. But he was shocked to discover that it had been covered in grease - meaning his hands and feet started to slip all over the place.

Nuisance/YouTube

YouTuber Nuisance, real name Adam Lockwood is a 21-year-old from Manchester. He gained entry to the residential skyscraper, Il Primo, and attempted to dodge the real construction workers during his ascent to the top – 390 metres (1,280ft) above ground.

The free climber revealed that he was initially stopped as he attempted to make his way up to the crane but managed to ‘chat some s**t’ and found himself an alternative route.

Lockwood then goes on to explain: “I didn't want to walk up 77 floors in the 45-degree heat. I didn't think anyone would be in the elevator.

Nuisance/YouTube

“He starts shouting at me in Arabic. 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.”

Lockwood then uses a different staircase to start his climb to the 77th floor, while stopping every so often to drench his head with water from taps to cool himself down in the heat. He changed staircases eight times in two hours as he kept coming across workers.

Nuisance/YouTube

“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 said. The YouTuber then cut 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 later discovered that the bars of the crane has been covered in “grease”, something he mistook before starting his stunt for desert dust.

“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.”

Adam Lockwood/Animal News Agency

Nevertheless, the experience had been “surreal” but also “almost peaceful”for Lockwood, as his “brain is blank” when he performs stunts.

“When I first looked at the footage, I was thinking to myself: ‘This is it, this is the most incredible thing I’ve done,” he said. “It’s something I know I can do and that 99% of the world can’t and never will do, so I feel obliged to use my ability and enjoy doing it in the process.”

Having finally returned to the safety of the ground, Lockwood admitted that he didn't plan to repeat the terrifying climb ever again.

He closed the video by saying breathlessly: “Wow, I’m not doing that again. On my life, I’m not doing that again.”

Adam Lockwood/Animal News Agency

He added he had “a few close calls” with his grip and footing.

"I had four close calls whilst climbing up and coming down I had a few close calls too.”

But still he feels the stunt was worth it.

"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."

Nuisance/YouTube

"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."