One of my hiking routes around San Isidro de El General features what I think may be the world’s steepest street. Like many streets here, it has no name. One local called it La calle muy cuesta que conecta Barrio Pocito con Barrio Sinai (The very steep street that connects Barrio Pocito with Barrio Sinai), which seems as good a name as any.
The steepest part of the street is about 45 to 50 meters in length and climbs about 20 meters in altitude. This rise in altitude is confirmed by the fantastically detailed maps available at topographic-map.com. The base of the street is at 696 meters and the top at 716 meters. Of all the streets and hills I hike here, this is easily the one that requires the most exertion and leaves me sucking wind when I reach the top.
Any climb this steep would typically be converted to steps, with a handrail. But this is an actual street, with houses on each side and occasional through traffic.
The street (note one pedestrian trudging very slowly up the hill)
View of the street from across the one-lane bridge.
According to the Guinness World Records, the world’s steepest street is located in Dunedin, New Zealand. At its steepest stretch, the ground rises 1 meter for every 2.86 meters covered horizontally. To qualify as the world’s steepest street, a road must have the highest gradient (steepness) over a continuous 10-meter (33-foot) section, measured along the road’s central axis. Additionally, the street must be a public thoroughfare that is commonly used by vehicles.
I think this street checks all the boxes, if barely. The steepest section rises 1 meter for every 2.5 meters, more or less, which is steeper than the Kiwi street. While I walk up it for exercise, I have walked down it only once, taking tiny steps, and had the sensation I might fall and skid to the bottom the entire minute it took me to descend.
How steep is it? When I spot it from the one-lane bridge, the angle of the street reminds me of the inclines on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh: two funiculars that transport people up and down the equally steep mountainside.
I have sent the photos and meter measurements to Guinness and am awaiting their response. Let us see if San Isidro de El General, Costa Rica, can become the official home to the world’s steepest street.
