Take the ‘Death Stairs’ if You Dare: Inside the Facebook Group Celebrating Hazardous Staircases

For many, stairs are just a part of daily life — a simple structure to get from one level to another, the New York Times reports.

But for nearly 800,000 people on Facebook, stairs have taken on a whole new meaning as treacherous, curious, even thrilling attractions. The “Death Stairs” Facebook group, which began as a small page created by Lane Sutterby in November 2020, has blossomed into a massive photo collection of the world’s most dangerous, bizarre, and sometimes laughably impractical stairways.

“I figured I’d have 10, 15 people join, maybe some of my close friends and a couple of random strangers,” Sutterby said.

Now, with the help of four moderators, he manages a community that celebrates stairs described as “where ascension is perilous and descending is deadly.”

One popular post features the quirky green staircase in Kevin Reid’s childhood home, which, until it debuted on the page in April, was just part of his family’s life. Reid’s father had built the staircase as part of a two-story addition, fashioning it out of pipe fittings and making it look more like a ladder than a traditional stairway.

“I wouldn’t do it in sock soles… you can fairly rush down them and they make a nice ringing sound,” Reid admitted, though he said.

The group’s members post photos of staircases that defy conventional design and test the limits of functionality. Stairs with no guardrails, inconsistent depths, or flooring so slippery it seems designed to trip are all welcome. Many of the most popular posts showcase perilous outdoor staircases, like a steep cliffside staircase in New Zealand or Pittsburgh’s famous outdoor steps. Tourist destinations such as the pyramid at Chichen Itza and Mount Taishan in China also frequently appear.

Cicley Tu’i, another member of the group, shared a disorienting experience with stairs in a Maine hotel. The hallway’s narrow vertical-striped carpet creates a tunnel-like illusion. As someone with an injured hip and reliant on a crutch, Tu’i was startled one morning when she tripped, misjudging a step that seemed visually shorter due to the carpet’s optical effect.

“I was totally fine… but I thought: ‘I’m awake now. I don’t need coffee,” she laughed.

Others in the group quickly related, with one user commenting, “Been there, tripped on them.”

While these stairs are celebrated for their precarious design, researchers say the danger is very real. A 2018 study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine found that from 1990 to 2012, an average of 1.1 million people per year were treated for stair-related injuries in emergency departments. Sara Harper, an assistant professor specializing in fall prevention, emphasized that stair safety is essential, particularly for older adults or people with visual impairments. Even minor design flaws, like inadequate handrails or uneven steps, can turn an everyday staircase into a hazard.

Architect John Templer, author of the comprehensive two-volume series The Staircase, delves into the historic and aesthetic allure — and dangers — of stairs. He argues that the suffering caused by hazardous stairs reflects society’s “ignorance, carelessness, or indifference” toward safer design.

For those involved in Death Stairs, however, the thrill seems to lie in the balance between fascination and fear. Ana Carla Díaz, a graphic designer in Cuautla, Mexico, shared a photo of rickety metal stairs she took to a market, only realizing after joining the group that she’d encountered “more death stairs than I want to accept.”