Free climber didn't realise crane had been covered in grease before scaling 1,200ft above Dubai

A free climber who'd managed to scale a crane that was 1,280ft above Dubai was shocked to discover that it had been covered in grease - meaning his hands and feet started to slip all over the place.

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.

“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.”

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 said.

He also showed 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’.

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.”

Speaking after the daredevil stunt – which, by the way, you should absolutely NOT try yourself – 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.

“I slept for the whole day when I got back to my accommodation because I was so tired."