Climbing the CN Tower

I haven't been writing on this blog as much as I'd like, so I'm trying to make it a habit to write about any cool things I do.¹ I think most people are more interesting than they think they are, since they just don't realize how different their life is from other people. Of course it would feel normal to you: you've already been living that life every day!

A couple weeks ago, I participated in the WWF Climb for Nature, an annual climb up the CN Tower's 1776 steps while fundraising for wildlife preservation and sustainability. Why did I do this? Despite living within a couple hours' drive my entire life, I've never been up the CN Tower. I've also developed a penchant for stairs ever since I read some text saying it was an easy way to build exercise into daily life. I've done 5K and 10K runs in the past too, so this just seemed like something I should do.

However, the main credit goes to a friend of mine who pointed out a Reddit thread comparing the CN Tower climb to beating A20H in Slay the Spire (the hardest enemy in the game on the highest difficulty setting, in an already challenging roguelite). Several school-aged kids, including my friend, have preiously climbed the CN Tower as part of a field trip in around 22 mins, which should certainly make it much easier than such a gaming accomplishment. These comparisons often suffer from a lack of context, as aptly illustrated in xkcd #2501. In any case, that random comment was enough of a push to get me to sign up for the next CN Tower climb.

Preparation

Still, I didn't want to embarrass myself, so I looked into what the climb would be like and whether I needed to start training. The average climb time is around 28 mins, which either means kids are insanely good at climbing stairs, or lots of people underestimate how difficult the climb is (and kids just have a lot of energy). Some people compare it to a 5K or 10K run, while others say they did it with almost no training in 35-40 mins.

For context, my exercise regimen for the past several years of my life has consisted entirely of DDR/PIU a few times a week. And walking or taking stairs whenever it's convenient, I guess. The last time I ran a 5K was over 10 years ago, and my body felt pretty terrible after that. I don't play any sports or work out, but due to my metabolism I'm still very underweight for my height. Not having a lot of body mass certainly helps for climbing stairs, so my goal was to finish the climb in under 30 mins.

Separately, some people complained about bad smells and vomit in the tower stairway, which makes sense when you consider it's a relatively confined space with no way to bail out in the middle. However, I wasn't as worried about this compared to struggling to make it up to the top.

I initially trained by using the stairs in my house, but that required going down the stairs after going up. After 10 minutes my calves were very unhappy and I felt like I was going to trip on every step. Turns out going down stairs is also hard, so I switched to running around a nearby park. That ended up being a nice way to get some fresh air, since spring was arriving and the termperature was warming up. Leading up to the event I was jogging ~2K a couple times a week, which helped with not running out of breath during the climb.

The Experience

It was around 2-4°C the morning of the climb, and even though I had registered for the latest time I needed to be there by 9am, so it was cold. You aren't allowed to bring anything on the climb other than id and medication in a zippered pocket (so no phone or water), due to safety concerns from falling items. There were lots of people around and helpful signs everywhere; it's a big event! After a brisk walk from the convention centre to the tower, it was time.

...Time for a slow walk up the stairs? It turns out the start times later in the morning are quite crowded, and the stairway is narrow enough that only 2 people can fit comfortably side-by-side. Thus, I spent the first few landings escaping the congestion of slow-moving people. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one trying to do so, and it started to thin out after floor 10. I was careful to pace myself since I didn't want to burn out early, but I thought it was worth going fast at the beginning to avoid being stuck behind a slow climber.

The stairs are in sets of 11, with a small landing between each set with the next set facing the opposite direction. Each landing is large enough for 3 people to rest with space for climbers to continue up past them, and a paramedic is stationed every 10 landings for emergencies. There's an empty space beside the stairwell with a grate in between, which helped a lot with airflow. I didn't notice any bad smells other than sweat from other climbers (though it's possible I was too focused on moving), and the cool temperature was great after my body warmed up to the exercise.

Around floor 60 I started to feel it in my thighs, but it was still very doable to keep walking up. I knew I had to keep moving, even if it was just walking. So far I had been passing both slower climbers and people resting at landings, so I felt like I was making good pace. I knew the total number of steps was 1776 and I counted 11 steps between each landing, so I kept in mind that it should be around 150 floors. The paramedics soon became a welcome sight as the ones closer to the top cheered on the climbers.

Around floor 120 I started hearing shouts of "almost there" from above, and although I had alternated some periods of walking I hadn't stopped to rest a single time. Unfortunately, it soon became congested again. As a result, I spent the last several floors behind a woman holding both handrails and going slowly, and I couldn't be bothered to make a big deal out of it. We reached the end scanner to register our time at around floor 150 like I predicted, and it was great to see everyone cheering... only to see a few more flights of stairs ahead of us.

Thankfully, I had read about this beforehand: even after you "finish" the climb, there are still about 10 more flights to reach the observation deck. This section is where I got excited and tripped for absolutely no reason. I didn't have anyone waiting for me at the top, but it was still great to see all the support for others and the camraderie of having done such a momumental feat. I had no idea what my time was because I didn't bring a watch, but I thought I had done around 20 minutes (~1.5 stairs per second), which blew my goal out of the water.

I spent the next while staring out the CN tower's windows. It's an incredible feeling to be that high looking at the Toronto skyline and out over Lake Ontario: I recommend even if you don't take the stairs up.

After going down the elevator (I definitely wouldn't have been able to go down the stairs), I picked up a t-shirt and got my time. 19m 16s, which was pretty unreal. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable, though the training I did certainly helped. I'd be up to do this again next year and try improving my time!