‘Pro-Life Spider-Man’ Climber Who Scaled Las Vegas’ Sphere Arrested, Charged With Destroying Property

Las Vegas’ mesmerizing Sphere has quickly become one of the most iconic structures on the already vertigo-inducing Sin City skyline. But on Wednesday (Feb. 7) the venue where U2 is currently wrapping up the venue’s first-ever residency run pulled attention for a stunt by a man who calls himself “Pro-Life Spider-Man.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 24-year-old professional climber and local anti-abortion activist Maison Des Champs climbed to the top of the spherical venue without a rope or harness. A friend of Des Champs’, Tim Clement, said the climber had been planning the stunt for the past month and was aware that such a climb could have legal implications given similar detentions in the past; Des Champs was arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts in 2021 for climbing the city’s Aria hotel as a protest of COVID-19 mandates.

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Des Champs was reportedly booking into the Clark County Detention Center and hit with charges of destruction of property greater than $5,000 and conspiracy to destroy private property.

In a video posted from the top of the Sphere, Des Champs said the climb was to help raise money to dissuade a homeless, pregnant woman named Isabel from having an abortion; Des Champs posted video of the climb on his Instagram, which included the voice of someone asking his video crew to leave the property. The climb was the latest building-scaling stunt by Des Champs to raise awareness and/or funds for anti-abortion causes.

The attention-seeking climb came just days before hundreds of thousands of football fans are expected to descend on Las Vegas for Sunday’s (Feb. 11) Super Bowl LVIII matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, marking the first time the NFL championship game will be held in the country’s gambling capital. Sphere Entertainment thanked local police in a statement, saying, “We are grateful to the local authorities for their support in this matter. The individuals involved are currently in the custody of LVMPD.”

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