Run the stairs! So this FKT is the fastest time to climb all the stairs in the Silverlake Neighborhood of Los Angeles. Back in the day, Silverlake was serviced by streetcars and many of the hills leading up to the houses were too steep for roads. For this reason, an extensive network of staircases were built around this neighborhood and are still around today. Many of them are decorated and painted beautifully making every twist and turn of this route interesting and colorful. There are a total of 38. I've included a file of each one marked as a point. I've shared some additional resources below on how to find these stairs and more about my experience doing this.
Here's a map based scrollytelling experience on my experience doing this.
You can use this map I made to check out all the stairs in Silverlake or otherwise.
Rules:
- Climb every staircase in Silverlake. You have to go from the bottom to the top of each one, but can go down the stairs before or after need be. This should all be done on foot - no biking/driving between staircases.
- This is an urban orienteering challenge. It has to be a loop (starting and ending at the same place), but there is no one correct route. The fastest time on this will likely be more about choosing your route and finding your way than pure fitness.
- If a staircase is closed run to the base, but skip it. When I first did this two were closed off to the public.
- Be careful you are not going up private staircases. Many people have stairs leading up to their homes near these public staircases. Always be on the lookout for no trespassing signs.
- Try to stay off your phone. I did this almost exclusively with a paper map print out. Try to stay off your phone for route finding as much as you can to appreciate the neighborhood and not get run over by cars.
If you want to learn more about the stairs of Silverlake, I recommend checking out Charles Fleming's book, Secret Stairs of LA.
