One wrong move & we risk death’, the couple who fell in love scaling world’s skyscrapers without safety harnesses
ANGELA Nikolau, 31, is a rooftopper and lives with her boyfriend, Ivan Beerkus, 30, in Moscow, Russia.
“Reaching the top of the spire of Merdeka 118 – the world’s second-highest skyscraper, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – my boyfriend Ivan stepped on to the thin scaffolding we’d carried with us, above the 2,227ft sheer drop.
Then he lifted me by the waist over his head while a drone captured the death-defying stunt.
It was December 2022, and after 10 weeks of intensive training, Ivan and were pushing ourselves to the limits of ‘rooftopping’, in which extreme climbers scale buildings and cranes without safety harnesses.
One wrong move and we risked certain death.
Growing up as the daughter of circus performers, I knew I wasn’t going to lead an ordinary life.
I started gymnastics aged seven and had a natural talent, taking part in competitions as I got older.
Aged 16, I tried rooftopping, after seeing videos on Instagram – the excitement appealed to me – and I started posting photos of myself doing gymnastics on Moscow’s most perilous rooftops.
Before long, I’d gained prominence in what tends to be a male-dominated world.
Not wanting to worry my family, I kept it secret – until my nana saw me on the news!
While she was anxious about my safety, she knew there was no stopping me.
In 2017, Ivan contacted me and asked me to scale the highest construction site in the world with him – a crane in Tianjin, China.
At that time, he was more well-known than me, but we hit it off and enjoyed climbing together.
In Paris, we were chased by police.
I was caught, and while Ivan could have escaped, he let himself get arrested, too.
Within months, we’d fallen in love and posted on Instagram: ‘We found love and elevation,’ with a photo of us kissing while rooftopping.
‘Some lows’
We went viral and gained a million followers.
After that, we travelled the world, calling our mix of rooftopping and acrobatics ‘skywalking’.
We made money doing stunts for sponsors, as well as selling our photographs, and a production company followed us with a view to making a documentary, as we pushed ourselves and each other to our limits.
There were some lows – on one occasion, I fractured my hand when I slipped running from security, and I had panic attacks when I froze mid-climb, which were terrifying.
When the pandemic put an end to travel, our income from sponsors dried up and I diversified, doing content creation.
When travel was allowed again, I was happy with my steady income and didn’t want to go back to rooftopping, which put our relationship under strain.
Then Ivan told me Merdeka 118 was almost complete – I’d always wanted to climb it and it relit my passion.
With the last of our money, we bought flights to Malaysia.
After sneaking past the guards, we had to hide from construction workers in a tiny space for 30 hours, leaving us dehydrated and exhausted.
We managed to reach the spire, but I didn’t think I could do the 90-minute climb with a backpack weighing half my bodyweight as Ivan had to carry the scaffolding we’d need to stand on.
While every climb we do is still dangerous, I wouldn’t change my life with Ivan for the world
But thanks to his encouragement, we both reached the top.
It was breathtaking, though looking at the drop made my legs shake and I panicked that we were going to fail at the last moment.
Then, as Ivan lifted me into the sky, I felt calm, seeing Kuala Lumpur from a viewpoint no person had seen before.
We’d done something together that nobody thought possible.
Exiting the tower was a relief and, after flying home, we posted our footage and gained 8.6 million views, putting us back in the spotlight.
People do need to understand the risks – almost all my old rooftopping crew have died or been seriously injured.
While it’s upsetting, I have to make peace with that – and it’s not something I can think about when I’m on top of a building.
But while every climb we do is still dangerous, I wouldn’t change my life with Ivan for the world.”
- Follow Angela @angela_nikolau. Skywalkers: A Love Story is out Friday on Netflix.
BTW
There are no specific laws around rooftopping, but rooftoppers can be charged with criminal damage or sued for trespassing.
In December 2017, rooftopper Wu Yongning’s tragic death was broadcast to millions when he died attempting pull-ups from the ledge of a 62-storey skyscraper in China.