We had the privilege to watch at first from the SE corner of the building and later as he climbed by the the observation deck on the 89th floor. Hair raising stuff I'll never forget.
There are many answers depending on what you meant by this, but in terms of actual risk this is probably not much worse to him than e.g. riding a motorcycle, and certainly better than what it would have been to be crew on the space shuttle.
The second one is from the inside of the observatory (89th floor). Folks with media passes were allowed to get closer so that's the crowd you see pictured. He's climbing in the background.
You can get a sense of his feelings about this how he talks with his wife at the summit afterwards. He says something like "There were lots of people taking pictures and waving. I was chill", indicating he felt he had done well in a situation he had anticipated may have been challenging. THey'd likely discussed this extensively before.
Also, previously through the climb he makes efforts to be deliberate and chooses to interact positively with some of the people. Waving, offering a hand on glass for a high five, making a few jokes at the fans' expense over the headpiece "I offered him a high five. He was too busy on his phone. Kids these days"
My feeling about all this is the presence of many people was something he had rehearsed a lot and decided he was going to stay relaxed and positive about, and that's what he did.