Stairs. Not a word that sparks much excitement. We climb them all the time without even thinking. If you do feel anything at all, it’s usually just the burn in your legs after one too many steps or the sudden jolt of missing one. But there are places where the simple act of going up or down can get your heart truly racing—not from the effort, but from sheer fear.
You can find them in a Facebook group called ‘Death Stairs’ which, as its name suggests, is dedicated to sharing terrifying staircases. Picture this: flimsy ladders reaching for the sky and slippery rocks clinging to cliff edges. If you’re curious, we’ve gathered the most spine-tingling posts below. Fair warning though, you might want to hold onto something first.
#1 Scary Stairs In Portugal
Image credits: Andrea Shore
“Welcome to Death Stairs, where ascension is perilous and descending is deadly,” reads the bio of the Facebook group that has 382K followers. Despite the ominous tone, the members often lighten the mood with their humorous captions.
“Literally all it would take is one drunk uncle attempting to scale this like Mount Kilimanjaro to turn the wedding reception into a funeral,” said one of the users about a tiny set of wooden steps used by restaurant staff to reach their office.
#2 Not Mine But Holy Wow This Is The Worst I’ve Seen
Image credits: Seven Robyn Summers
To learn more about ‘Death Stairs’, Bored Panda got in touch with Jeroen Puijn and Greg Wilson, two regular contributors. The fascination behind the group remains a bit of a mystery, they admit. But one thing’s for sure: the trickier the stairs, the more people seem to love them.
Jeroen, being Dutch, isn’t easily impressed. In the Netherlands, a small country that historically had to use every inch of space, narrow and steep staircases are a common feature.
For context, Dutch home steps are typically 15 cm deep, which is about 6 inches—half the recommended safety standard. You can’t even put your entire foot down. Yet, as Jeroen notes, everyone there is simply used to them.
#3 Good Luck Going Down To Pee At Night
Image credits: Anna Tuvike
#4 An Accident Waiting To Happen
Image credits: Linda Johnson
Sharing a glimpse of his own home, Jeroen posts a picture of a small ladder leading to the attic. His cat is laying by the very edge of the opening, looking relaxed. One of the commenters calls the pet a “personal resident death defier”. The owner jokes that the cat might just smack you on the head as you come down.
#5 Stairs At My Hotel In Paris. It Was Even Worse In Person. The Camera Brightened It Up A Lot From The Actual Lighting.
Image credits: Geoff Baie
#6 Authentic Dutch Stairs In The Airbnb We'll Be Renting To Bridge The Period Between Moving Out Of Our Current House Into The One We Just Bought.
Image credits: Madalina Amza
Jeroen says the scariest stairs he encountered weren’t in the Netherlands, but in Greece. Located on one of Crete Island’s famous gorges, they were very wet. Jeroen found himself seriously struggling with keeping his balance on the way down.
#7 Abandoned Diving Board, Prague, Czech Republic.
Image credits: Josef Polesný
#8 It’s Fine. Everything’s Fine
Image credits: Jeff Logan
#9 Stayed In London Last Fall. Bathroom Was Upstairs.
Image credits: Marinus De Graaf
On the other side of the world, Greg, who plays in a jazz band in Pittsburgh, has faced many vertical obstacles since moving to the city with his partner four years ago.
“We’ve encountered crumbling concrete city stairs, residences with all number of stair-related code violations, and piles of bricks or rotting wood being passed off as ‘stairs’,” he says.
“I see our laughable state of regulatory oversight as a microcosm of the downfall of the American empire, and [the group] manages to make a big heavy topic like that feel like something we can laugh about”.
#10 Death Stairs In Our Old Home. Everyone Has Fell Down These At Least Once.
Image credits: Devin L Hill
#11 Found Today In Sorrento, Italy
Image credits: Melissa Saint-Hilaire
#12 5th Floor Of Our Hotel In London, UK. I'm Standing With My Back Touching The Closed Door To Our Room. Yes That Is Beige Low-Pile Carpet Lining The Walls Under The Banister. The Stairs Ahead Were To The Washrooms.
Image credits: Jeannie Grundy
Greg had a near-death stair experience once when his dog rushed past him, causing him to trip down to his garage. The wooden beams supporting the stairs gave way, and he landed on his side, breaking two ribs. It took nearly half a year for them to heal completely.
#13 Perfect Choice Of Carpet
Image credits: Edward Matthews
#14 Tangelo In His Favorite Let's Trip Mom And Have Her Break Her Foot Again Spot.
Image credits: Nancy Jeffries
#15 This Is Something I Built For Burning Man In 2014. My Wife Says It Qualifies To Be Posted In This Group. For The Record, There Were No Reported Injuries.
Image credits: Doug Taphouse
Under a Facebook photo shared by Greg, one user commented that Pittsburgh is the death stair capital of the USA. The staircase in the post has scruff marks and screw holes on the floor, where the railing used to run all the way through. Now, there’s a small gap that could be easily missed.
#16 Staying At This Hotel In London Was A Struggle. Especially After Couple Of Pints Of Guinness
Image credits: Marta Chrobak
#17 These Bad Boys Also Come With A Custom Wobble To Each Step! Stairs That Have Been On The "To Fix" List For Probably Over 10 Years. Located About 2 Hours Out Of Pittsburgh/Deathstairtopia
Image credits: Hope Safko
#18 Scary Stairs
Image credits: Andrew Karam
“I guess we probably get a small smug sense of satisfaction being able to identify when something is wrong and unsafe, even if it’s blatantly obvious,” reflects Greg.
When we post on ‘Death Stairs’, it can feel like “we’ve accomplished something just by pointing out an obvious problem and saying, ‘this is bad and wrong! See? I’m helping!’”
#19 Its Been A While But Then I Found This Greatness In An Art Gallery In London
Image credits: Nik Burns
#20 My Very Favorite DIY Home Stair Repair In - You Probably Guessed It - Pittsburgh.
Image credits: Milo Berezin
#21 Just Bought A House And These Are Our Stairs
Image credits: Sara Kay
Jeroen finds it ironic that stairs, whose primary goal is to be functional, sometimes end up being poorly designed and dangerous to use. Surprisingly, experts say they’re one of the most challenging elements to get right.
Danish Design Review explains that stairs are hard “to modify if other parts of the scheme are changed as the plan develops. It becomes a difficult game of consequences—change one part and another no longer works”.
#22 From A Local Listing
Image credits: Guillaume St-Jean
#23 In My Friends Barn
Image credits: Bryan Bailey
#24 Found Literally In The Wild!
Image credits: John Arnold
The designs we see on ‘Death Stairs’ are truly in a league of their own. But while they may be entertaining to look at, it’s important to remember that navigating them in real life can be a different story. So be careful out there and watch your step!
#25 Elfin Cove, Alaska
Image credits: Cooper Curtis
#26 Obligatory Pittsburgh Picture
Image credits: Laurel Nikole Kolenda
#27 Student Dormitory Stairs In Eastern Turkey
Image credits: Emir Özmen
#28 My Knees Hurt Looking At This Picture
Image credits: Taryn Hough
#29 I Have Fallen Down These Bastards Twice, Which Was Two Times Too Many. Now I Climb Down Them Backwards Like A Ladder. Our House Is A Very Old Cape Cod And My Office Is On The Second Floor So I Am Upstairs Every Day. As You Can See They Are Very Steep, And The Step Is Very Narrow, Women’s Size 9 Croc For Comparison
Image credits: Kellyann Kamm
#30 Pictured: The Stairs That Almost Killed My Boss. Picture Taken After I Mopped Up The Blood And Added Tread Tape.
Image credits: Kenneth John Moyers
#31 Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland. Not Traditional Steps, But Certainly Not A Place For A Soft Landing After A Misplaced Step
Image credits: Darren Millar
#32 Eerie Death Stairs In Pittsburgh On Melrose Avenue. These Steps LED To A Small Apartment Development Called Clifton Park
Image credits: Dean Mcafee
#33 This Is One Of The Coolest Things I've Learned In Anthropology, At Ruins, And So On. It's Also Completely Terrifying. Chaco Canyon
Image credits: Athena Wahlstrom
#34 My Air Bnb In Edinburgh, Scotland A Few Weeks Ago. 50 Steps Total, And We Were On The 4th Floor. Nothing Like Schlepping 4 Heavy Suitcases Up This Bad Boy After 3 Connecting Flights!
Image credits: Julia Rose
#35 Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
Image credits: Maria Georgieva
#36 Not Really Death Stairs, Unless You Slip And Fall 300 Feet Into The Great White Shark Breeding Ground Below. As A Sidenote, It's Just A Short Drive From Bodega Bay, Where Hitchcock Filmed 'The Birds.'
Image credits: Alan Elliott
#37 The Stairs At My Boyfriends Parents House
Image credits: Erin Marie
#38 Newcastle, England
Image credits: Daniel Butt
#39 1911 Photo Of The Indian Trail Steps In Pittsburgh. Over 1000 Steps From The Level Of The Monongahela, Just Across The River From Downtown Pittsburgh, To The Top Of Mt. Washington, Which Was A Working-Class Neighborhood In Those Days. It Cost A Nickel To Ride The Duquesne Incline, Worth About $1.75 In Today's Economy, And Many People Climbed These Steps Both Ways To Save Ten Cents Every Day! The Steps Fell Into Disrepair And Disuse And Were Gone Before The Beginning Of Ww II.
Image credits: Mike Walling
#40 These Were The Stairs In My Daughter’s University House. It Was A Lovely Victorian House. It Was No Fun Getting Her Belongings In And Out! Shes 5’10, How She Survived Negotiating Those Whilst A Bit Tipsy And Never Knocked Herself Out On The Doorframe Is Beyond Me!
Image credits: Persephone Jones
#41 In Our Hotel In Paris.
Image credits: Kate Bendick
#42 To My Sister’s Attic In Her New House
Image credits: Brady Smith
#43 Not Sure If This Has Been Posted Already. But Stumbled Across These Possible Death Stairs In Juneau, Alaska… I Figure They Fit But The Camera Doesn’t Do The Angle Justice…
Image credits: Garrett Proffitt
#44 Not Even That Egregious But These Are Stairs Staff Actually Use To Get To The Office Of A Restaurant/Event Space I Was At Last Night. Literally All It Would Take Is One Drunk Uncle Attempting To Scale This Like Mount Kilimanjaro To Turn The Wedding Reception Into A Funeral.
Image credits: Cassane Elyse
#45 Glassport, Pa
#46 Seven Falls In Colorado
Image credits: Jim Connolly Jr.
#47 Haven't Seen This Mentioned Here Yet, But Was Reminded By Another Post... The Fort Worth Water Gardens.
Image credits: David Hibbs
#48 That's How You Get Christmas Decorations Out Of The Attic
Image credits: Cole Young
#49 From A Local Listing (Technically Ladder And Not Stairs). Pitched As An Extra Bedroom…the Dining Room Is On One Side (With No Door), And The Only Entrance To The Actual Bedroom Is On The Opposite Wall. Yes The Brace Pole Is That Slanted, And Yes The Fan Is Directly Above The Ladder.
Image credits: Andy Ripplinger
#50 Saw This On A Sponsored Post, I Feel Like It Counts
Image credits: Joshua Darrin Hobbs
