Carleton University: a beautiful campus with an ugly amount of stairs.
Considering our beautiful campus was built on a hill, there really are a lot of them. Just by walking through the University Centre to get to Tory Building, and up to the quad, you take six flights of stairs! Who needs a stairmaster when you can just walk back and forth between Rooster’s Coffeehouse and the Carleton bookstore?
But how much does one student actually walk in a day on campus? I found out for you with the help of Google Maps and a converter.
Let’s start an average day, by getting off the O-Train and heading to your first class. Let’s say it’s in Southam Hall. That’s 750 metres, and 984 steps. In that distance we have about eight sets of staircases. So let’s round it up to about 1,000 steps to get to your first class.
To get to your next class in the University Centre, that’s another 360 steps. Are your feet tired yet?
Next, you have a tutorial in the Azrieli Theatre. Even with the winding stairs, that adds about another 446 steps to your day. But that’s not all you’re doing on campus in a day.
A trip to the washroom is at least 52 steps each. To take a walk around the quad between classes, that’s another 308 steps. A coffee at Rooster’s? That’s about 884 steps there and back from the library.
That’s over 3,000 steps, just walking around campus.
If you really want a challenge, you can walk up and down the stairs in the library—the spiral staircase in the glass windows facing the quad makes for a beautiful view, and the stairs are a great opportunity to take a break from studying and stretch your legs.
An even better challenge is walking up and down the entire staircase of Dunton Tower. The lengthy staircase may seem daunting, but it’ll give you some awesome bragging rights.
Some other great areas to walk around campus are along the Rideau River, where you can follow the path to the butterfly conservatory, or you can take the opposite route and cross the canal locks, into the experimental farm.
Walking around the Carleton University Art Gallery located near the residences in St. Patrick’s Building is interesting for the artistically curious, but for your stepping feet as well! The gallery will be closed for the months of November and December, due to renovations, but when it reopens in the New Year, it will be a great place to roam while it’s snowing.
So if you’re inclined, take advantage of Carleton’s campus incline—if you spend enough time on campus, you might even be able to tell yourself you don’t need to go to the gym.
