He climbed down and spent more than three hours swaying from a harness about 65 feet above the Hudson.

WSJ: Man who dangled from New York bridge is convicted

So he climbed down from his first aspiration.

FORBES: Rules of Order in the Jungle

Sullivan told jurors how he climbed down ladders to the basement, and then had to crawl through the rubble to reach Daina Bradley, who was lying in about 6 inches of water in the smoky darkness.

CNN: McVeigh jury hears gory testaments of life, death

When his tower was high enough that he could touch his upraised elbow to the ceiling, he went all the way down to the bottom and climbed all the way back up to the top carrying a long stone roughly the size of his leg.

NEWYORKER: Ziggurat

For the moment, at least, it's both, as was clear when McCain climbed back onto his plane and headed down to South Carolina, where he was met at 3 a.m. in an airport hangar by hundreds of college kids and the earsplitting techno sounds of Fat Boy Slim.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Cover: McCain's Moment-Page 2