A Dickson Step is a small step about 5 to 10 centimetres high in a hotel bathroom doorway. The step is designed in such a way as to be a trip hazard for unsuspecting guests who get up to relieve themselves during the night.
In a classic Dickson Step scenario, the toilet will be positioned 2 to 3 metres in front of the doorway – an optimum distance to ensure that in the event of a fall, the victim’s head is likely to land in it.
The Dickson Step is named after the mountaineer Mark Dickson, who became the 316th British person to climb Mount Everest on 19 May 2012.
Dickson began his 2011 expedition to Manaslu, the 8th highest mountain in the world, bearing a mysterious scar on his forehead. Nobody could recall how he had obtained it, though it was suspected to be alcohol related. He had spent the preceding evening touring the bars of Kathmandu, and could not remember returning to his room at the Courtyard Hotel.
A few months later, Dickson commenced his Everest expedition sporting a remarkably similar injury. Again, he had spent a ‘night on the tiles’ the previous evening.
It wasn’t until he returned from his expedition six weeks later that the mystery was solved. He was assigned to the same hotel room at the Courtyard Hotel; he awoke in the middle of the night, lying on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood.
The room had a Dickson Step which the hapless climber had tripped over while trying to dispose of the Everest beer that he had consumed a few hours earlier. He had groped around in the darkness, stumbled and cracked his head on a strategically positioned toilet bowl just in front of the doorway, knocking himself unconscious. He made a full recovery, but he retired from mountaineering soon afterwards. He is now an award-winning jam maker.
It is always recommended to check for a Dickson Step before going to bed in an unfamiliar hotel room. In certain circumstances, failure to do so could be considered more dangerous than climbing Mount Everest.
I was dining in an establishment in Kathmandu after returning from a lengthy trek around the hills and scaling trekking peaks. That was in 1981. I asked directions to the toilet and was pointed down a long unlit tunnel. Couldn’t see a damn thing. About halfway along my forehead smacked into a horizontal concrete beam! At 182cm I’m not especially tall. I can only surmise that the structure was designed by someone who bore a grudge against anyone taller than 170cm…
I don’t think this architectural wonder is common, so perhaps unworthy of a special term.
Thanks, Brian. I have a bruise on my forehead just reading your comment. Had I not destroyed so many brain cells smacking my head on low doorways in Nepalese teahouses then I believe I would have won the Nobel Prize for Literature by now.
My god, what timing -I have a huge dangerous Dickson step in my hotel (NFSchiller in Rembrandt Square) this week -it’s terrifying to think how many people have suffered at the hands of this work of architectural folly.
I leave by train for the Eiger tomorrow!
I think they’re mandatory in Amsterdam to tranquillize the stag parties. The Eiger should be much safer.
haha.. indeed
Mark, after a week of hiking and scrambling around the Eiger I can finally understand the route choices made on the North face and how the 1938 route while circuitous in nature makes the most sense standing at the bottom and studying the face. Also, the West Flank is way way sketchier than folks make it out to be.
We all look so young in that photo!
Most of us. Except the two bald-headed guys on the right.
This story tickets my brain. The poor guy had to stop climbing because it was simply too dangerous. Not the mountains, mind you, but the hotel toilets… 🙂
Manaslu is the 8th highest not the 6th. I wish I was that lucky to climb the 6th 🙂 but that is Cho Oyu.
Well spotted. Corrected.