WE CLIMBED THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS LADDER (2,000 Foot Drop)

A portion of this video is sponsored by public lands.

And 2,000ft above ground right now.

Oh my gosh.

Today we are going to be climbing this. This crazy ladder is nicknamed Stairway to Heaven and you can probably guess why. Can't believe.

It is suspended between two mountains and when you're standing in the middle of it, there is nothing except an inch wide metal bar between you and the 2,000 foot drop to the ground below. We're not done yet. We gotta go straight up that now.

They will literally rent this stuff to anyone. I love that about these countries in the Alps.

Zero questions asked about how much we knew about Via for red. Via Ferretta. Via Ferreting.

I think here they pronounce it via Ferrata.

Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing.

In the US you'd have to get a permit or pay somebody to do this or go with a guide, but here they just give you the stuff.

This has gotten us in trouble in the past.

We're just surrounded on all sides by crevasses. We learned our lesson in Switzerland. We figured if anybody could go do something, it was probably safe. And that turned out not to be the case. So we've learned from our mistakes and today is going to be a training day. We're going to go do what's considered an easy via ferrata, test out our skills, and then if we're feeling confident, tomorrow we'll climb the ladder. So sick on the boat. You worked out?

Yeah, no, I'm strong.

I'm feeling good. You're not flexing. Oh yeah, you got this.

They should feel your muscles at the store.

Whoa, baby. This place looks like a painting. It is the most picturesque mountain town I have ever seen. Also, the lady we rented our gear from was so sweet. You can tell she was just a happy mountain lady. It's so pretty. It's helping me forget how scared I am a little bit.

Wow, look at this reflection. This is insane.

This is so pretty. Let's just, you know, stay down here and do some hiking this weekend. What do you think? We don't need to go all the way up there.

So for context, the ladder sits between these two mountains and the trail ends there at the peak.

You know what I'd rather do besides be a ferrata? Jump off of this into this freezing cold lake.

Okay, so the plan is to start here, climb this low route by the water, up this ladder, up the mountain and we'll make a circle across a bridge back to where we started.

Okay.

I do like how we're, like, close to the ground this whole time.

And if you fall here, you fall in the water. It's where you want it to go anyway.

And if you've never heard of Via Ferrata, it's basically like a mix between hiking and rock climbing, but probably more rock climbing than hiking. Basically, someone, I don't know who has affixed steel cables to the side of a mountain to make it easier for normal people like us to access cool parts of the mountain that are normally reserved for skilled rock climbers.

All right, you ready for this?

How do I open the camera? Okay.

Any last words?

I feel really nervous right now, but I feel like that's normal.

So this is not the first time we've ever done this. We've done it once before in Peru. Nice work. Wow. I can't believe they just let people come do this. This is the most fun I've had in a long time. So every so often, there's a peg that's holding the cable on, and you have to unclip one carabiner, move it to the other side, then I clip the other one, and that's how you move along the Via Ferrata. You look so cool.

Yeah. You can't see how fast my heart is beating.

This might be the coolest thing we've ever done.

It might be knowing that this is, like, our training climb to go up there. I can't let myself get too nervous, because. I know, but this is nothing compared to what we're doing tomorrow.

Nice. I'm seriously so proud of you.

I'm proud of me, too.

No way. Look at this.

All right, wish me luck. It's so shaky.

I'd like to be on this as little time as possible.

You're going way faster than I was. This is actually way more intense than I thought it was going to be. Nice work, Carrie. You are absolutely crushing it.

It's definitely scary, but I have this, like, weird trust in my gear that it's fine. And I'm trying to view it as this, like, whole new way of enjoying nature that I've never really done before.

We have reached the top part of the climb. Weirdly enough, I've almost become numb to the fact that I'm dangling 500ft above a lake right now. Nice. Nice. From here, we follow this cable and down climb all the way back to the lake. I still can't believe those are my feet. Look how beautiful it is.

Oh, my goodness. We're literally about to walk across a steel cable like a tight rope. Walker. So what crazy person designed this? This might be scarier than the ladder tomorrow. Okay. Here goes nothing. I don't know if it looks like the camera's shaking, but my hands definitely are. Whoa. That is not near as tight as I thought it was going to be. This is actually insane. Can you see how much I'm wobbling right now?

There's no way you can see how crazy this is.

Stay focused.

It's shaking so much. They added an obstacle just for fun.

Don't worry that.

Way to go. Thank you for going first.

I made it.

I can't believe I'm about to do this. Y' all gonna catch me if I fall.

What?

You gonna catch me?

I was trying to make a joke.

Nice work. I wish I could zoom in on the determination on her face right now. Nice, smooth transition.

Thank you.

The cheerleaders are down below my feet. I'm not sure if you can see the man down there for scale, but we're at least 60ft off the ground. It literally looks like you're suspended in the air right now.

Wow. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe I just did that. I felt like I had to do it for the people. The people watching.

You're so close.

We're almost there.

Nice work. All right. Ow.

My carabiner hit me in the ankle.

I have some adrenaline going.

I'm so proud of you. Seriously, so proud of you.

I have really mixed emotions right now. Part of me is just so proud that we just did that. Like, that was insane. Like, all the people walking by were, like, pointing and taking our picture, and it just felt really cool. And I'm so glad it's over and we made it. But it's like, I still know we have to do this again tomorrow on a much harder route. So I'm, like, celebrating, but also still really nervous.

That was even more fun than I thought it was gonna be, which means that it was harder than I thought it was gonna be. I thought this was just gonna be fun. Gentle warm up. My heart was racing the entire time.

No, I feel like we did it. Like, we came and we did it. If we don't have to do the thing tomorrow.

I was gonna say, if we did that and then went home, I would be pretty happy.

There's no room to, like, go be scared. Like, you just have to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It's crazy what your body just does. Like, I wouldn't even remember how I got from one place to the next.

So here's the plan for the next 12 hours or so, we're going to pack up our stuff and take this gondola here to the top of the mountain. We're going to stay in a hut that's located somewhere back here. And then tomorrow we'll climb the Via Fetta to the ladder, and then take the ladder and ultimately end up on the summit of that mountain.

I feel like I'm coming down off an adrenaline high. I just got really tired all of a sudden. But we have about 30 minutes to move all of our stuff out of our big suitcases and into our backpacks. Just what we're going to need for tonight. Because after we take the gondola up to the top of the mountain, we've got to do a little bit of hiking to get to the hut. So we're going to pare down to the bare essentials and then head up to the top.

Whoa.

This feels like such an adventure. Anytime we have to pack like a day bag to go somewhere in order to even start the adventure, it kind of gets me excited.

I gotta guess that says tickets in Austrian, German, whatever they speak here.

Hello.

Ticket Down. Kitchen. There we go.

D kitchen.

Thank you. Looks like we're the only ones. This is huge.

Have I told you that I don't know anything about this concept that we're staying at? The Internet was very nondescript. The guy said he had room for two when I emailed him, so.

So we could be, like, sharing a room with strangers.

There is a good chance that it's a bunk room. That right there is where we rented our stuff this morning.

Thank you.

Are we sleeping?

That's a shorter hike than I anticipated, but that's also not a bad thing. Look at the views from up here. This is crazy.

Were so high. We were just on top of the water down there.

Not.

Look at where we are.

Okay, let's give it freezing.

It's a lot colder up here. They were calling for a slight chance of snow tonight. I normally always love snow. I would always wish for it to snow, but that could throw a big wrench in our plans.

This is great. Super cozy. Honestly thought I was going to be sharing a room with a bunch of strangers like I did when I was in Morocco. Even though we're sleeping in separate beds, I'd say this is pretty good.

Looks like we have hooks for our clothes, a nice little desk and chair, and two twin beds.

Not bad.

And the bathroom is across the hall.

Also, look how much it started raining. We were just completely enveloped in a Cloud right now.

Here is the washroom. There is a hair dryer and a shower. We're on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere right now, and I could have a hot shower and dry my hair. I probably won't, but it's pretty cool. I've been hungry since we were dangling off the side of the cliff.

We are verging on the edge of hanger here.

Little quiet in the hut tonight. I think it's just us and one other couple.

What is this?

Listen to that.

I believe we have the Austrian version of Mac and cheese.

It's the best thing I've ever eaten. I think I might have fallen on the Via Ferrata and gone to heaven.

Current charging situation, only one outlet. No problem. I'm watching all these people on YouTube doing this climb that we're doing tomorrow. My hands and feet are in a full sweat. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to sleep. Like, I know I can do it. I just can't help but be scared. I don't think any more videos are gonna help me at this point. You just gotta do it.

Good morning. It is slightly more drizzly than I would have preferred. It was not raining when we left the hut, which is just in the valley right back down there, but it's already started again. Kara is currently getting her wish that this Via Ferrata will get rained out. But we're going to push forward because it looks like all the rain is moving that direction. And hopefully today's the day.

So we decided we'd wait a little bit for the rain to stop. And this turned into the longest 40 minutes of my life. The longer we waited, the more nervous I was getting and the more I started to second guess whether or not this was a good idea. I was really questioning if I was in over my head.

Okay, I have a question for you. Okay. If given the choice right now, would you rather swim Alcatraz again or climb the Spia Ferrata?

I feel equally incapable of doing both.

All that you did Alcatraz. No problem. You actually beat me.

Honestly, I'd rather do this twice then do Alcatraz again.

That's exactly how I feel. I thought you were going to say the opposite, though.

Wow. When I think of it that way. Let's go. I think we're doing this.

Been waiting for that all morning.

It's raining again. The weather's calling for a mild chance of rain for the next hour. And then it's supposed to be beautiful the rest of the day, so we might have to wait a bit longer, but I'm feeling good about it. A lot of people pointed out on the glacier in Switzerland that it was irresponsible for me to make a video showing us going to do something like that and encouraging other people to go do it because it worked out for us. So I don't want to encourage people just to come out here and just like, if you have no clue what you're doing, just go for it. Like, we haven't necessarily spent a lot of time doing via ferrata, but we spent a lot of time doing hard things and training our bodies to be capable of showing up and doing something like this.

You know that feeling of nervous energy that you get right before you're about to do something outside of your comfort zone, and it's like, it's kind of fun. Well, that's the same feeling that we've been living in for the past three hours. And the fun wore off a little while ago, but the rain stopped. I see blue sky here and there, and I think it's finally time to climb this mountain.

Let's do this.

I love you. Love you. Thanks for doing crazy things with me. We got this.

We got this. For some reason, they couldn't add just one more meter of cable to get to.

All right, first of many.

Can't believe we're doing this.

She's committed. So far, so good. One major difference between yesterday and today is the size of the foot pegs. The other ones were huge loops, and these stick out about three inches from the rock. We just started and we've already gained so much height.

Look at this. I'm not sure how well you're going to be able to see this, but look at the reflection in the lake down there. That's not another cloud. That's the cloud above reflecting in the lake. And the best part is this side of the mountain is dry.

My fingertips are frozen. I can't feel the carabiners when I'm moving them over.

Good work. Go ahead and switch your clips. This is very much what they consider type 2 fun in the moment. A little scary, not so much fun. But it's one of those things. After it's over, you can't stop thinking about how much fun it was.

Just jump across.

I got the heart racing.

118P per minute.

This is our first big climb.

Right up.

First part, wings back, about.

Pretty sure this part on the map said steep with an exclamation mark.

You got this. Take a deep breath. Nice. Now Switch. Beautiful. This is definitely the hardest section of Via Forado we've been on yet. You're actually leaning backwards as you climb, so it takes a lot of strength just to hold yourself on the mountain. This is one of only 2D sections the entire thing, so this should be as hard as it gets. Nice. Getting over this hump right here is a little tricky. Good work.

Beautiful. Oh, it's so good. I'm so proud of you. That part was hard. This section really got my heart racing more than I expected.

Whoo.

Oh, my shoe almost came off.

This is actually insane.

So the whole trail isn't just climbing straight up a mountain. There are some sections where you're just traversing across, but honestly, those sections are few and far between. This is a nice break, though. All right, here's what we've come for. The stairway to heaven.

I'm just kidding. But this does look like a pretty fun ladder. They do keep you guessing out here.

I don't know if you can see those little pegs. It's like a sketchier leather.

I hated that little party coming over the edge right there.

I was just thinking, with how nervous I am doing this, I think I would be just as nervous if I had taken the hiking path, knowing that Nate was doing this alone. So nerves are happening regardless. And so far, I have not regretted my decision. Decision. It's been pretty epic.

It gets pretty sketchy right here.

That ladder took us to the back side of the mountain, so we have completely new views. Look at those beautiful valleys down there. I feel like I can almost hear the cowbells from here. There's the hut that we came from this morning, and the top is somewhere up there. All right.

It's 12:30. They say it takes about three hours to get to the top, so if we're lucky, we're halfway right now. We sure have come a long way. And there's a tiny little rainbow on the horizon.

Halfway hug.

Halfway hug.

Whoa. We're getting our first glimpse of the ladder. That little dot hovering in the sky right there, That's a guy climbing it. Wow.

Look up.

Oh, my gosh.

I thought by the time we got up here to the ladder, I would almost be numb to the height. Why did my feet feel funny just looking at that ladder? Oh, my goodness.

It's definitely higher in real life. Higher, wobblier, and scarier in real life. Let's scoot over.

I'm sitting on the ladder. Oh, my gosh. This is crazy.

There we go. I have both feet on the ladder.

Okay. Here we go. Oh, my gosh. I'm 2,000ft above ground right now. I have no idea how Nate talked me into going first.

It's wobblier than it looks. It's wobbling.

Oh, gosh. There's a bee right in front of my face. As if. Oh, my gosh. It touched me. Stop, stop.

You got this. You're crushing it. You look awesome.

Thank you. Please keep encouraging me.

It looks so wobbly, though. Wow. This is amazing.

It's wobbly. We're shaking. My heart is racing.

There's no way this looks as scary as it is. Oh, my gosh. This is crazy. No amount of videos on the Internet could have prepared me for this.

Oh, man.

It's getting wobblier. Just a bit wobblier. Yep.

This is crazy.

Oh, my gosh. It's, like, terrible because you kind of have to look down to see where you're putting your feet. There's no, like, no looking down. The rule on this thing is no more than three at a time. I cannot fathom being on this ladder with two other people. Without a doubt, I would be screaming.

At them to get off.

If somebody was trying to get on behind me right now, I would say, absolutely not. You'll wait until I'm done. But I guess that is the bright side of being here in the off season. I have to pee. Unclipping is the worst part. No doubt. Just only holding on with one arm.

Only three more.

Now what? I'm at the top, but now I gotta get onto the rack somehow. I have to get from here. Right here. Holy cow.

All right, well, Carol looks like she did it. No problem. So no excuses. It definitely looks scarier than I thought it would be. Wow.

Crazy enough. I think this last part is even scarier than the ladder. Just straight up. There are metal rungs, but they're not, like.

Super easy. But just look at this.

I can't believe.

Look at her up there. You did it. You're amazing. All right, here it goes. We flew all the way to Germany, rented a car, drove to Austria, and it spent the last day and a half climbing in the mountains to get to this moment. This ladder, it's actually so shaky, I don't know if it's my legs or the ladder. Probably a little bit of both. Hello, bird. This is absolutely insane. Nothing standing between me and 2,000ft of ground down below except a little metal rod. I feel like this bird is like, what are you doing up here?

Step by step. Step by step.

Honestly, it's absolutely terrifying. But there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now. I feel so alive. You really are kind of forced to look down, though.

Even though I'm up here, it still gives me the heebie jeebies.

Put this in the category of top three craziest things I've ever done.

Okay. I'm transitioning off the ladder right now. This is so sketch. Look at that. Look what I just did.

Here he go.

You made that section look so easy in the drone.

Really?

That was terrifying.

Yeah. That was terrible.

Oh, my gosh. I kind of can't believe I just did that.

I know.

Good work. I'm so proud of you. Thanks. What in the world is happening right here? They just want to put us out on the edge.

Yeah, you just gotta.

I don't love that.

Go over this little hump.

Not flexible.

I do think my flexibility helps a lot in this scenario. Whenever there's nowhere to put my foot, I just kind of hike my leg up.

We're not done yet. We gotta go straight up that now.

Let's do it. This section after the ladder is definitely the hardest part.

We are literally just climbing up the knife edge of a mountain right now. I see the cross up at the top, and I don't see any more big cliffs between here and there. We're basically walking to the end from here.

No way. Oh, I could try.

I don't want to say we've made it, but.

Last line.

The end's here. Still got to make it up there, though. I guess they just trust us to do a normal hike from here.

I can't believe we in pain.

Look at the views from up here.

Those mountains over there that look like they're barely taller than us are already covered in snow.

I can't believe we're standing here.

You did it.

Tiny cross that I saw from so far away. We didn't.

I am so proud of you. I know I've said that, like 50 times today, but I know I'm more comfortable with these physical challenges, and this one pushed me really far outside of my comfort zone. So every time I thought about how uncomfortable I was, I thought you had to be way more uncomfortable. And the fact that you were pushing yourself through that, I'm just. I love you so much.

Love you. I'm really proud of us. Especially me.

And you're, like, usually like a 10 out of 10 hot. But when you were coming up over that mountain today over the hard part, you were like, a 12 out of 10. I think we found the edge that Was it? It has never felt better to stand on the top of a mountain.

Like that is just a straight up clip. And we just climbed it.

I was like having an out of body experience multiple times today.

Yeah.

I was like, I cannot believe this is me doing this. And then I look down at you and I'd be like, and that's Cara. We questioned whether or not we should book this trip at the last minute because we only had a few days. The weather was looking iffy and we didn't know if we were going to get here and decide we couldn't do this. I would not trade the last three days for a million dollars. I really wouldn't either.

Wow.

This is why we do hard things. This feeling, it's unmatched. Now we're gonna skip back down the mountain straight into the restaurant. I'm gonna order me some yummy food. I just felt really good for the rest of the day, for the rest of the week, for the rest of my life. This was the feeling I was clinging to. And it was hard and terrible. I was just picturing myself standing right here celebrating. And here we are.

If anybody is planning their trip here based on our experience, just know that you should bring some snacks if you're as slow as we are. And know that when all of your adrenaline wears off at the top, the hike down is not fun at all. I usually try to be pretty positive, but there is nothing fun about that. It's too high tech.

I can't figure out how to put it in drive. Making noises. It's not doing anything. Normally renting a car wouldn't make my list of exciting things I've done in the last 24 hours. But the road that I have heard about my entire life, that has no speed limit. The Autobahn in Germany is actually a real thing. I'm going 100 miles an hour and I'm going with the speed of all the other cars. Right now there are cars riding my butt. This is so crazy.

Look how it's like so.

I'm scared.

Fly to India in four days. And I just remembered tonight's the last night that I can apply for our passports.

And I just know I'm a danger.

Why do you want this photo so much?