A man climbed to the top of the Las Vegas Sphere on Wednesday just days before the Super Bowl takes place in the city, according to local news outlet KTNV. The man, Maison DesChamps, was videotaped crawling up the side of the 367-foot Sphere by nervous onlookers. He posted a reel saying he climbed the building to raise money for an anti-abortion rights project. Onlookers nervously recorded the situation on social media.
‘More People Need to Know About This History’: A Black Astronaut Speaks About Race and Space
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told a local news outlet they were responding to reports of someone scaling the Sphere. First responders launched emergency vehicles to the scene, and police are asking people to avoid the area immediately around the sphere. As of 11 a.m. PT on Wednesday, multiple people had been detained outside the sphere, and DesChamps is reportedly in custody, according to KTNV.
“As we sit here today, there’s an individual – for a publicity stunt – climbing up to the top of the Sphere,” LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill told local reporters. “Your first responders are all over there, taking care of it. We know these things are going to happen, and we’re going to deal with them as they come up and make sure we have the safest Super Bowl we’ve ever had.”
DesChamps, who calls himself “pro-life spiderman,” climbs skyscrapers to raise money for what he says are “women in crisis pregnancies,” but the funds are for anti-abortion rights organizations. He was arrested for a similar stunt in 2022 for climbing the 61-story Salesforce tower in downtown San Francisco.
The climb reportedly took about 15-20 minutes, according to Tim Clement, a fellow anti-abortion rights supporter who helped DesChamps, when he was interviewed by local news outlets.
Though the sphere looks like a smooth screen, it is actually highly climbable. Close up, you can see that each light is on a bar, and each light is a fairly large bulb that could easily fit in the palm of your hand.
DesChamps is potentially the first person to climb the Las Vegas Sphere, less than six months after it was built in September of 2023. The city of Las Vegas is preparing to host 72,000 fans at Allegiant Stadium for Super Bowl LVIII.
