54,000 stairs, 16 hours: Abu Dhabi coach climbs Mount Everest's height on one staircase

Abu Dhabi-based physical training coach Veljko Vukićević climbed the same stairwell again and again until he had accumulated 8,848 metres of vertical ascent, the height of Mount Everest, without ever leaving the capital.

Why? Because he wanted to prove that extraordinary challenges do not require extraordinary settings. Instead of travelling to a mountain, the Serbian coach transformed an ordinary Reem Island staircase into his own Everest, hoping to show that the biggest obstacles are often mental rather than physical, and that anyone can take the first step towards an ambitious goal.

To complete the feat, Vukićević climbed to the 49th floor 59 times, covering around 54,000 stairs and burning an estimated 7,000 calories over nearly 16 hours while climbing about four ascents every hour. Between each ascent, he took the elevator back to the ground floor, keeping breaks to a minimum for water, dates, bananas, almonds and walnuts before starting again.

"I wasn't looking for beautiful scenery to distract me," he told Khaleej Times. "I wanted an environment where I had to rely entirely on my mental strength."

Unlike traditional Everesting attempts, which are typically completed outdoors using GPS-tracked cycling, running or hiking routes, Vukićević's challenge took place entirely indoors. He said he was inspired by the Everesting concept but did not seek official recognition because indoor stair climbs are not currently accepted for verification due to GPS limitations.

The challenge took nearly a year to plan. While he did not follow a training programme designed specifically for it, he prepared through rucking, cycling, uphill walking, VO₂ max workouts, bodyweight strength exercises and weekend stair-climbing sessions, alongside his work as a physical training coach at Abu Dhabi Police College.

Rather than chasing speed, Vukićević focused on consistency. He maintained a steady pace of around four ascents an hour for almost the entire challenge, using each elevator ride back down as a brief recovery before starting again. "My greatest strength wasn't climbing fast," he said. "It was recovering quickly enough to begin each ascent at almost the same intensity as the previous one." 

"The body is capable of far more than we often believe," he said. "The greatest obstacle wasn't the number of floors or the fatigue in my legs, but the voice in my head telling me I had done enough."

"Towards the end, I wasn't counting floors anymore; I was counting steps," he recalled. "At one point, I stopped on a landing, looked up and thought, 'Do I really have to do this again?' I smiled at myself, took a deep breath and carried on."

He deliberately avoided listening to music or podcasts throughout the climb, choosing instead to stay fully present.

"I broke the day into small goals, one ascent at a time. Entertainment wasn't what would get me to the finish line; discipline and complete focus would."

"The view never changed: the same walls, the same staircase and the same hallways over and over again," he said. "That was actually part of the point."

His only company throughout the day was colleague Srđan Ostojić, who handled the logistics, monitoring his heart rate, counting each ascent, preparing food and water, calling the elevator after every climb and helping him stay focused.

"I could sense people looking at me strangely, but honestly, I was just focused on the next climb," he laughed. "If I had started telling someone what I was doing, I don't think they would have believed me. They probably would have thought I was crazy or joking."

Despite the physical demands, Vukićević said his body recovered within a few days, with only the expected soreness in his calves, quadriceps and glutes.