KUALA LUMPUR: A 165cm (5ft 5in) "short" foreigner checked into a city hotel last Friday and set off tall alert plumes rising from highrise building owners puffing on cigars the size of bazookas.

Showtime!

He was no ordinary tourist. He is a Frenchman whose very presence in the country gets the guardians of skyscrapers squirming.

And that they were, when the alert went out to all highrise buildings from the hotel that the showman, "Spiderman" Alain Robert, was in town.

The text message read: “Info from Singapore… Alain Robert@ Spiderman went thru KLIA at 18.15. Checked into Melia Hotel and checking out on Jan 12. All high rise buildings take note from tonight.”

It turned out that Robert’s romantic return to the city was not to climb any building. He is here to receive the Brand Laureate International Brand Personality award for his skills, achievements and experiences as an urban solo freestyle climber.

“Phew! That’s a relief,” said a tower security chief who alerted The Malay Mail to Robert’s arrival. “Imagine the security logistics that would have gone into being on alert for days for Spiderman.”

Their cause for concern is understandable, especially since this ropeless wonder staged the assault of Petronas Twin Towers last September.

Then, in the pre-dawn obscurity, Robert, who is certified as 60 per cent disabled by French medical authorities as a result of his climbing accidents, dodged security guards to start his 88-storey ascent of one of the world’s most iconic wonders without safety equipment.

The 47-year-old was detained by police for scaling the 1,482ft Tower Two illegally. He was fined RM2,000 after pleading guilty to criminal trespass.

The Spiderman, who has scaled more than 80 skyscrapers worldwide, including the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and Taipei 101, is scheduled to give a talk as part of The Brand Laureate - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad lecture series at Berjaya Times Square.

He will be relating his experiences in a talk titled "Climbing Your Way to the Top".