GIANT STEPS STAIRWAY TO HELL STEPPING UP TO THE DVE N T A U CHALLENGE OF 11,674 STEPS E R H E

ON THE RAILS T Duncan Craig hits RISING PRECIPITOUSLY the 10,000-step mark – and hits it hard. Not far to go… I S S U E TO THE SUMMIT OF A SWISS MOUNTAIN, DUNCAN CRAIG TACKLES EUROPE’S CRAZIEST RACE AND INVESTIGATES THE GROWING APPEAL OF STAIR

● Basic race etiquette was one of the earliest casualties. The organisers had been quite clear – should we become aware of someone trying to pass us on the single-file steps during our interminable ascent, the would-be overtaker should say ‘treppe’ (‘stairway’ in Swiss-German) and we should step aside. But there’s something about being in the red zone – deeper in the red zone, in fact, that you’ve ever been – that relegates basic manners to the most inconsequential of matters. Survival instincts kick in and you become a selfish bugger. Or at least I did – ignoring pleas from behind, sticking to my line, forcing overtakers to brave the steeply sloping, chute-like channel that separates the steps from the funicular tracks. There was no way I was surrendering even the faintest sliver of momentum. When you have thousands of steps still ahead of you, such things take on an absurd importance. The Niesen-Treppen-Lauf (Niesenbahn stair race) had captivated me since I first read of it a decade ago. The Niesenbahn funicular railway is one of the Alps’ most accomplished engineering feats. Extending up the Tobleronic slopes of Mount Niesen, in Switzerland’s Bernese-Oberland, it cuts a neat swathe through the forested foothills and clings, stiff-fingeredly, to the barren upper slopes like a freeclimber. But it was not so much this engineering marvel that interested me, as what ran alongside it, as a contingency for an emergency evacuation of the railway: the world’s longest staircase – a flight of 11,674 steps.

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all the time. There’s a growing scene in India, China, Hong Kong.’ MY LEGS ARE STRONG AND MY Gallagher did his first race, at the Gherkin in , in 2013. Instantly hooked, he then tackled the Heron Tower and Tower 42, the Spinnaker, the BREATHING IS REGULAR, AND and a string of others. He’s an ultramarathoner but he’s yet to find anything that comes close to the physical and mental THE MORNING SUN HAS JUST torment of a stair race: ‘I really like the honesty of the . There’s no fooling the stairs: you try to take it easy but the stairs won’t let you. In other CREPT OVER THE MOUNTAIN races, there are times when you can cruise a bit, but this isn’t possible in stair running.’ Many stair runners trumpet the crossover Just imagine trying to run up it, was my first thought. My second, to Google benefits. Quads, glutes and core are all just that. And, sure enough, since 1990 – but with a 13-year hiatus as it changed its strengthened, lactate thresholds increased and focus from a small group of niche professional endurance athletes to a larger field utilising the handrail to help pull yourself up (a bona of amateur loons – there’s been a race. Once a year, the railway comes to a standstill fide technique that the pros spend years honing) until 10am to allow a field of 300 or so to subject themselves to untold suffering in provides a full-body workout. Bad weather is no idyllic surroundings. The rewards? Prestige and a few spectacularly unglamorous barrier to training on your nearest stairwell and prizes (Odor-Eaters stood out here). The race is a vertical mile – you run from the its quick-hit-return equation is another plus in our 693m valley floor to the 2,362m summit – the incline approaches 70 per cent in time-starved times; if you’re prepared to embrace places and nearly all the competitors are local. It was an impossibly seductive mix. the pain, results are pretty much guaranteed. Arriving at Mülenen, the village at the foot of the mountain from where the ‘I took about four minutes off my 5K after six weeks funicular begins, at 6:20am on race day, I find an atmosphere similar to any mid- of just stair running,’ says Gallagher. size parochial race. Names are being taken; numbers pinned; timing chips adjusted; Then there’s the lack of impact. As any runner gels stored; stretching routines flirted with. The race organisers keep up a crackly knows, the attrition rate of churning out dozens monologue of instructions, struggling to be heard over the sound of the surging of miles a week can be high and the consequent meltwater river we’ll immediately cross when the race gets under way. injuries are spirit-sapping. But on the stairs, while As with every stair race, a mass start is impossible. At the Niesenbahn, it’s organised into pulses of two runners every 20 seconds, with the best stacked towards the final slots. Most seem to be runners rather than step specialists, though there’s a conspicuous glut of rippling quads on show. Advice varies. There is little consensus on the number of steps to take in one go: some say one; others are adamant it should be two; one even suggests three – the strategy employed by Colombian Francisco Ten of the world’s most gruelling Sanchez, who won the 1991 race in a record time of 52:22. In 2004, it was decided stair races. Tempted? to end the race at the Niesen summit, rather than the last step, adding 250m to the distance. The record for the new course, set in 2011 by Emmanuel Vaudan, is 55:55. 12,000 Step tactics may differ but everyone is in agreement about one thing: don’t go ● Niesen-Treppen-Lauf off too hard. I don’t need to be told. At my first step race, the inaugural Spinnaker Switzerland – 11,674 steps Tower run in Portsmouth six years ago, I went off like the clappers, completed the EARLY RISERS the cardiovascular system may be stretched to breaking point, your joints enjoy ● (top to bottom): Almost a vertical mile from final few floors on my hands and knees, and spent 20 minutes dry-retching in the Shanghai Tower something close to a free ride. ‘I was very injury-prone as a track athlete,’ says toilets at the finish. Chastened, I ran the Empire State Building (ESB) Run-Up six Shanghai – 3,398 steps the valley floor; the course featured a series Suzy Walsham, stair-running ‘galactico’ and multiple winner of the rival world of covered sections; on top of the world months later listening to classical music, with my heart rate hardly deviating from championships staged by the Towerrunning World Association (TWA) and the 150bpm. That had been encouraging – but that race’s 1,576 steps were a little more ● One World Trade Center Vertical World Circuit (VWC). ‘But stairs being non-impact means I don’t get injured than a seventh of what I’m about to tackle. New York – 2,226 steps at all. In fact, I can still train and race even when I’m carrying injuries that prevent Am I prepared? Difficult to say. My training has been improvised, at best, built on me from running.’ At 44, Suzy is lean, bursting with vitality and seemingly getting three central pillars: strapping myself to the gym’s Versaclimber until my quads and ● Rose Bowl better with every race. She runs an estimated 200,000 steps a year and shows no glutes groaned and the cleaners moaned at the puddle of sweat; tackling as many 8,000 Pasadena – 2,128 steps signs of slowing down. The former Commonwealth Games 800m and 1500m runner hills as possible on my road bike; and hitting the stairwell at work. Hard. is convinced that such longevity would not be possible in more conventional . ● International Conference Centre on the up Hong Kong – 2,120 steps never-ending storeys If I’d been looking for evidence of stair-running’s growth in the years since I nearly Back at the Niesenbahn, those Odor-Eaters won’t win themselves. My number redecorated the Spinnaker Tower, it came in the response of those colleagues who ●  – siebenundsiebzig (77) – is called and I and my randomly assigned race buddy caught me in the act. Six years ago, I might as well have been openly urinating in my – 2,115 steps (CamelBak, neat Germanic glasses, hair as white as his knee-high socks) are ushered chosen training stairwell, such were the looks of bewildered indignation. But this through the door of the base station and towards an electronic counter. This works time round, there was altogether more understanding; all seemed to have heard of ●  down from 20 seconds, during which we share a handshake, and then the starter’s 4,000 Menara Tower stair running, and a few had even tackled one of the UK’s growing number of races – 2,058 steps arm goes down and we’re trundling over the river on the elevated steel walkway. such as London’s Tower 42 or the Christie Tower Run in Manchester. ‘Don’t go off too hard.’ The mantra repeats in my mind as I slip into a cautious There is empirical data, too. The Towerrunning World Association, the sport’s ●  101 early pace, aided by the walkway ramping up alarmingly, like a reverse ski jump. international governing body (the mere existence of such tells its own story), Taiwan – 2,046 steps White socks is even slower. ‘Treppe,’ I announce proudly and he steps aside with a estimates that the number of races worldwide has more than doubled since 2010. cheery nod. Early days. We’re all friends. A record 266 events in more than 50 countries were staged in 2017, from Bogota to ● China World Summit Wing I feel good. My legs are strong and my breathing is regular, and the morning sun Beijing, Pasadena to Penang, Ljubljana to Las Vegas. That’s close to 140,000 stair Hotel Beijing – 2,041 steps has just crept over the mountain, flooding the valley with sunlight and taking the runners of all levels competing each year, and a growing number of these events edge off the crisp air. I allow myself the occasional glance left and right to admire are in the UK. ‘There are new races all the time,’ says Patrick Gallagher, founder ● Eureka Tower the valley opening up below. Cattle bells tinkle in the distance. I’m enjoying this. of the independent Tower Running UK organisation. ‘When I set this up, in 2013, 0 Melbourne – 1,958 steps And then, all too soon, everything starts to fall apart. There’s just no let-up. In there were six races. Last year there were 14. Globally it’s popping up in new places a conventional run, as Gallagher points out, you can vary the intensity, commit,

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the race) – regales us with stories of Francisco Sanchez’s record-breaking ascent in 1991. ‘He had incredible power,’ he enthuses. ‘He was like an antelope – it was the Stair-running know-how from Suzy Walsham, eight-time winner of the ESB Run-Up Niesenbahn’s “were you there?” moment.’ I quiz Urs about expansion of the race, whose limited places are known to sell out quickly. There’s clearly scope to internationalise it: the highest-placed non-Swiss If you’re going to race on stairs, Walking two stairs at a time is In races with a handrail, use Start far slower than you think runner is 38th, and I’m one of just three Brits among 227 finishers. Rather than just train on stairs. Start small and faster than running one at a it to pull yourself up. It’s you need to. If you go too fast a few hours a year, why not take the railway over for a day? Make a party of it? Have build from there. If you attempt time, so aim for this. Running allowed and it helps take you’ll blow up, which, I can tell music at the top? A festival atmosphere? Clearly, I’ve had too much beer. 40 storeys straight off, you’ll up the steps two at a time, some of the load off your you, is horrific. I try to maintain Urs indulges me but isn’t entirely convinced. A bigger field would have its benefits, fail and it will knock your as I do, is quite tough for the legs. Techniques vary; some a constant pace and rhythm all sure, but at what price to this race’s considerable charm? confidence. Far better to do beginner but it is possible runners use a double handhold the way up, but some people I speak to Patrick Gallagher on my return to the UK. He’s a huge fan of 10 floors, then have a rest. with some practice. to haul themselves up. get overexcited. the Niesenbahn stair race, but sees the event as something of an anomaly on the circuit (‘uniquely different’, he calls it), though an important component in raising the profile of the sport – and in helping it to earn the respect he believes it deserves. ‘It does annoy me the way that stair running is treated in some quarters,’ he says. ‘I’ve seen races screened on TV with commentators treating it as an absolute then coast, then commit a bit more. This is relentless. A dull ache takes hold of my I hang on and count the last several hundred running joke. But that doesn’t make any sense: the men and women at the top level of quads and calves, which, over the next hour or so, will morph into a jagged, burning steps to the final tunnel. It’s long and dark but at the sport are 30-minute 10K runners. And I can tell you this: it’s certainly not a joke sensation, and a stream of sweat falls from the peak of my cap. the end I know I’ll find what my legs and lungs for anyone who has trained for one, or who has actually stepped up and done one.’ The variable surface is another challenge I’ve not anticipated. Single flight this yearn for: relief from the tyranny of the treppe. As I finish my beer, collect my sodden kit and join the queue for the Niesenbahn’s may be, but it’s divided into multiple short segments: neat trellised steel steps; We’re spat back out into the sunshine onto a long, slow, treacherously steep descent, I can certainly vouch for that. narrow, bricked ones; improvised stone steps so high you need both hands, and a paved path, which meanders, step-free, up to the little momentum, to even scale. Some sections have handrails, others have nothing. summit finish. I experience the most incredible HIGH TIME One unstable stretch has an accompanying rope, which I flail at. and unexpected second wind, tearing past five, 10, (top to bottom): Duncan at the finish; from I dig in and clamber on, ignoring my first ‘treppe’ request from behind for a good 20 competitors plodding, zombie-like, towards the this height, paragliding is not a problem; 10 seconds before relenting. The gradient is shocking in places; a stone I dislodge finish line as if in a protracted fall. I respond to the the final few agonising paces to the summit, slips into the track-side channel and bounces off down the mountainside to land in whoops from the surprisingly large crowd gathered the finish line and an ill-advised beer the river possibly as much as a minute later. Running down this staircase would be by the terrace of the restaurant-hotel, hare it up the not just impossible, but quite possibly lethal. final stretch and collapse over the finish line. The first and only refreshment station comes just over halfway, at around 6,000 I can barely stand, my vision is obscured by steps in, at the Schwandegg or middle station. I enter a cool, dimly lit tunnel and sweat and I’m seeing stars. When these clear, I then, abruptly, the staircase stops and a walkway takes me 20 metres across to a spot a finisher’s tent serving beers. You’ve got to parallel track. This is the point where passengers on the Niesenbahn must change be kidding, I think. Then I take one. from one distinctive red carriage to another. This enables the railway to operate on two wires rather than a single, impractically heavy one. I gulp down multiple plastic cups of water and orange squash, suddenly chilly runners high in my saturated top and shorts, and dine liberally at the refuelling buffet. It’s fairly Three-quarters of an hour, two beers and one standard stuff, save for the enormous hunks of chocolate that I almost instantly unisex changing room later and I’m sitting on regret gorging on. ‘Ah, you’re English!’ one of the volunteers says, when I offer my the dazzlingly bright terrace of Restaurant Hotel thanks. ‘Keep going. You’re almost there.’ Niesen-Kulm, taking it all in. It’s an extraordinary Well, not really. Not at all, in fact. Another 5,000 steps (give or take), is going to spot. I never imagined that the ESB Run-Up would sting a bit, I’m fairly certain of it. Exiting the tunnel, I get on the heels of a woman be bettered for stop-and-gawp finish-line impact, who has a neat, efficient technique and slipstream her for a welcome 10 minutes or but the summit of the Swiss Pyramid, as the so. If my pained wheezing bothers her, she has the grace not to let it show. I steal Niesen is fondly known, is out on its own. I have a look back: behind, stretching away to little more than dots far below, figures are a pilot’s-eye view of the cloud-dappled valley floor bowed against the gradient, emerging from tunnels and scrambling up the track like far below, yet sit above the cloud line. There’s the rodents. It’s a surreal sight: part race, part train-crash evacuation. visceral thrill of knowing that I’ve got all the way It’s around three-quarters of the way through that I spot Bruno. A tall, up here under my own steam; and it’s not often you effervescent fellow and a training partner of the late Ueli Steck (a legendary get to run a (linear) race for 90-odd minutes yet mountaineer and speed climber), he’s performing the role of official can still make out the start line when you’re done. photographer this year. But he would, clearly, rather be out here taking part, The race is won by 25-year-old Jonathan as he has done every year since the race began. A paragliding accident has Schmid, in what must surely have been an forced him to pull out; the hand he damaged is bandaged up, his telephoto lens infuriating one hour and 20 seconds. A quick chat propped in his cocked wrist. I’m fading fast, and craving some encouragement. with the tall Swiss confirms as much. ‘I really I don’t get it from Bruno. ‘Here he is – the Brit!’ he shouts. ‘What took you so long?’ wanted to break the hour mark,’ he says, mustering an unconvincing smile. Second is Friedrich Dahler, a man with some serious vertical pedigree – he holds the world record for the most metres climbed in 24 hours (20,407m). It’s pretty much a rule, I’ve I CAN BARELY STAND, MY VISION found, that whenever you do something extreme, there’s always someone who’s way out in front of you on the scale. IS OBSCURED BY SWEAT AND I’M Prizes are handed out in a low-key ceremony on the terrace (fourth, Silas Walther, gets the Odor- Eaters) and everyone settles down to eat, drink and SEEING STARS. WHEN THESE CLEAR, recover. I sit with Bruno and race organiser Urs Wohler, a jovial bear of a man. Bruno, who loves this mountain so much he wrote a book about it

I SPOT A TENT SERVING BEERS – Der Niesen und seine Bahn (there’s a chapter on PETRONI/NIESENBAHN BRUNO PHOTOGRAPHS:

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