A rooftopper shared an unbelievable and very illegal view from one of the tallest points on the Toronto skyline. Anyone with a fear of heights, be warned, it's going to get really uncomfortable from this point forward.

Videos shared by a rooftopper known as ChaseTO show a daring climb to the very top of the St. Regis Toronto (formerly the Trump International Hotel and Tower) at Bay and Adelaide.

With a spire pinnacle of approximately 282 metres, the St. Regis is technically the second-tallest building in Toronto according to the official measurement system used by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat — which controversially counts spires in building heights (but disqualifies antennae), sort of like if I wore a really tall Abe Lincoln-style hat and claimed to be taller than Shaq.

Regardless of whether a spire should be counted as building height (it should not), this rooftopper now boasts the claim of being one of the few people to ever stand in this spot without a work order and a hard hat.

just stop listening to people pic.twitter.com/xfiO2Cm7XM

— ChaseTO (@thechase_to) January 3, 2024

The St. Regis has been a favourite of rooftoppers since the trend got its start right here in Toronto back in the mid-2000s, kickstarted by photographer (and former blogTO photo editor) Tom Ryaboi.

Many have taken photos from atop the tower's distinctive onion dome, though this may be the first recorded instance of someone climbing the actual spire.

It’ll be ok pic.twitter.com/2vw4cS4GXW

— ChaseTO (@thechase_to) January 7, 2024

A longer video shows the harrowing climb from the roof to the top of the spire, complete with anxiety-inducing pants and grunts as the daredevil inches his way up the tower's pinnacle.

In the video description, the creator claims, "As far as I'm aware, no urban explorer has climbed to the very top of the St. Regis spire. People have Photoshopped themselves up there, but nobody actually climbed to the very top because it was impossible – or so we all thought."

The same rooftopper behind the St. Regis video is believed to be the one responsible for a series of September 2022 incidents where an unidentified individual was photographed swinging from cranes atop under construction towers.

Footage emerged around this time showing the same rooftopper swinging from a crane at the Sugar Wharf Condominiums construction site high above Lake Shore Boulevard East.

😳 wtf

— MarcoGrassi.eth (@MarcoGrassi_) September 30, 2022

blogTO reached out to the rooftopper behind the videos, though he has not responded to requests for comment as of the time of publication.

As for the obvious legal issues, Toronto Police representative Cindy Chung tells blogTO that investigators are unable to speak on this particular incident, however, she provided a statement on the trend of rooftopping in general.

"Trespassing on rooftops is extremely dangerous and puts people at significant risk," said Chung, warning would-be rooftoppers that "They can be charged with mischief and break-and-enter under the Criminal Code."

That risk became a reality in 2023 when a local rooftopper was killed while attempting one of these stunts. Conrad Rybicki, a 22-year-old Toronto man, was killed in May 2023 during an unsanctioned rooftop expedition, triggering a plea from his parents and police not to engage in such activities.

Despite these warnings, other local rooftoppers continue to scale tall buildings for death-defying photo-ops. One incident recorded just months after Rybicki's death, where a man backflips off the edge of a 65-storey condo tower and dangles over the edge by a balcony railing, gained attention last July.

Others have faced penalties for their stunts, including a Russian national arrested in 2022 and charged with break-and-enter and mischief after filming a video showing off handstands atop a downtown Toronto tower.

Even the Toronto man who launched this global trend, Tom Ryaboi, was arrested and faced charges (which were later dropped) in 2015 after a foiled rooftopping mission.