Watch Man’s Terrifying Climb of Deadly 2K-Meter Ladder That’s Claimed Lives

A video of a man climbing up a “shaky” ladder on a route leading to a 2,054-meter-high (around 6,739 feet) summit in the Austrian Alps has gone viral on Instagram.

The clip was shared by Tim Tygran (@timtygran), a 28-year-old freerunning athlete and content creator based in Hellevloetsluis, a small town near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The video has had 5.3 million views since it was posted on September 6.

The ladder, which is 40 meters (around 131 feet) long, is “quite shaky in the middle,” Tygran told Newsweek, adding that “it did not feel dangerous for me but I can imagine that it’s not for everyone.”

The footage shows different dizzying shots of the famed “Sky Ladder,” located in the Dachstein Mountains of the Northern Limestone Alps in the town of Gosau. The video features terrifying views of the ladder from above showing the vast mountain landscape below, with Tygran climbing upwards.

Tygran’s video follows the death of a British tourist in September last year who died while climbing the dubbed the “Stairway to Heaven.” He was reported to have fallen off the end of the ladder, plunging around 90 meters (around 295 feet) down.

The Sky Ladder forms part of the via ferrata climbing route that leads to the summit of the Donnerkogel mountain.

Walter Laserer, a professional mountain guide certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations who guides climbers along the Donnerkogel climbing route every week, told Newsweek: “We do have, every year, several dangerous incidents and also deaths on the route at Donnerkogel,” warning that “there is a high risk” that you may need to be rescued in a dangerous situation.

The mountain guide advised it is “definitely not a good idea to try such a strenuous climb” as your first climb and “definitely not wise to do this inexperienced.”

The official tourism website for the Dachstein Salzkammergut region also advises that the via ferrata is “very difficult” and “climbers have to be experienced when doing it.” It is “definitely recommended” for all beginners to climb it via guide tour led by a mountain guide.

The Dangers of the Internet-Famed ‘Sky Ladder’

Translated from Dutch, a caption shared with Tygran’s viral clip says “Is this the world’s most dangerous ladder?”

Tygran explained that the text overlaid on the video says: “This is the world-famous ‘Sky Ladder,’ also known as the ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ After seeing it everywhere on the Internet, I wanted to see it with my own eyes and, of course, climb it.

“It is quite wobbly. You just have to avoid looking down, then it’s manageable. The higher you go, the more stable it becomes, which is nice! And that was the ‘Stairway to Heaven,'” the message on the screen says as the clip ends.

Laserer warned that “we do have lots of problems with people trying to climb this ladder, especially with so-called ‘Internet mountaineers,'” who aren’t fully aware of its dangers and base their research on footage found on the Internet.

Many of those watching these videos are unaware that the Sky Ladder is only “a very small and simple part of a long and difficult via ferrata climbing route,” said Laserer. He noted that the route is 650 meters (around 2,132 feet) long and it takes a couple of hours to reach the ladder. The entire journey of the route, including the descent, amounts to around five to seven hours.

The mountain guide said that many people see this one part of the climb in the videos online and “have no plan about dangers in the mountains,” such as snow coverage, which he notes can happen even in spring or summer, as well as thunderstorms.

“A via ferrata is very dangerous in case of a thunderstorm due to lightning and being on a steel cable,” he said.

He noted that there are several iron steps as well as steel cables installed on certain parts of the route to “make it more safe.”

However, “it is not easy to turn around once you are up on the climb and many people behind you on the via ferrata steel cable,” Laserer explained, noting that there are some emergency exits, “but you have to know them.”

He added: “Last but not least, you are ending at a 2,054-meter-high alpine summit with no easy way down. In fact, the way down is more a scrambling than an easy walk.”

Scrambling is a mountaineering term referring to the use of your hands to hold and balance yourself while navigating steep terrain.

The mountain guide suggests that only a “trained alpinist/climber with experience,” who also has experience in “outdoor scrambling” and “the power for five to seven hours of climbing (round trip)” should attempt this climb.

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