Contest #893 – Montagne de Bueren, Liège, Belgium

Like a surprising number of city’s extreme staircases, the reason for building this 375 step staircase seems to be related to a city’s red-light district.

Seems that the path between the Liège’s citadel, where the solders were stationed, and the city center ran through a section of town where a young soldier could easily get, shall we say, distracted. To provide a more direct way to the center, this staircase was built to allow the soldiers a quick, though exhausting, route.

Today, it’s a tourist attraction for the town. The Huffington Post rated it #1 in an article on the most extreme staircases in the world.

As the hint intimated, in July 2020, as the Covid-19 Pandemic raged all over the world, a Belgian adventurer named Louis-Philippe Loncke ascended the staircase 135 times, climbing a total of 9000m, or roughly the height of Mt. Everest. He did so to demonstrate that adventure could be found even close to home.

Those who found it before the hint:

  • hhgygy
  • Martin de Bock
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Garfield
  • Eloy Cano
  • Lighthouse
  • Phil Ower
  • Turriant
  • Graham Hedley
  • Bas van Limpt
  • Angie CF

And after the hint:

  • LRey
  • bernd