Climbing stairs is always more difficult than descending them, we know this and we are ready to face them. It is enough to get out of the Mexico City subway after a long day and find a broken escalator, look up, define the technique, take a breath and start climbing. During that eternal journey we have to deal with additional factors: those who try to get there first, the slower ones, those who carry a lot of weight and the stairs themselves.
The stairs of Metro Line 7 represent a particular challenge for any user, it is the deepest line, most of its stations are more or less 35 meters deep. You have to cross three blocks of stairs to get in or out of there, in San Pedro de los Pinos there are 153 steps from the entrance to the platform. This long walk, with its pauses, makes us aware of the height of each step, the inclination of the floor and other subtleties.
The sense of repetition in the act of going up (or down) enhances the differences and details of each step: an irregularity, a worn staircase, a peeling anti-slip (or an existing one), a crack or a break can be fatal during this journey. It is these small, sometimes imperceptible differences that reveal the steps of others in the same place.
These footprints remind us of the city in which we live and let us think of others who were underground, climbing up on a hot day or going down to shelter from the rain.
In 2014 the Metro Collective System released figures that show that, from January to December, 14,023,384 people passed through the Barranca del Muerto station of Line 7 alone. Millions of steps that leave a small footprint that over the days and frictions become vestiges of the rush, the crowds, the chaos and the race to reach the next car.