In Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the 7,000 Steps await those who wish to climb to High Hrothgar as part of the game's story, but how many steps actually are there? This religious site is integral to the journey of the Dragonborn, who must reach the Throat of the World's peak to unlock their full potential. Though this means players must face the drudgery that is climbing the 7,000 Steps, the trip to the top may be shorter than is marketed by Skyrim's lore.
The 7,000 Steps represent a literal and figurative pilgrimage in Skyrim. Men and Mer embark on long, arduous journeys up the Throat of the World's steps, challenging themselves both physically and spiritually. This makes the reward the 7,000 Steps offer all the more fitting and worthwhile: The beauty of High Hrothgar - the monastery where the Greybeards shout in the ancient tongue of the dragons - awaits those who survive the adventure up classic Skrim's tallest mountain.
However, the 7,000 Steps may not be so challenging after all. YouTuber natiscool found in their research that the actual length of this religious journey in Skyrim is somewhere between seven and ten times shorter than 7,000 steps. Though the estimates are ultimately uncertain, they clearly point toward something closer to a 700-step journey.
Estimates For The 7,000 Steps In Skyrim
In term of actual steps (as in "steps on a staircase"), there are only 732 steps in the famous 7,000 Steps, according to Skyrim's best high-level alchemy, one will find that the number of steps (as in "foot steps") is a little closer to 7,000. According to Joe Dovakhin, if one took the average amount of steps it takes to walk a mile (2,000) and then multiplied it by the average human walking speed of three miles per hour, one would find that the average human would walk 6,000 steps in an hour. This creates a ratio that, with slight corrections for elevation, allows one to find the estimated time it takes to walk the 7,000 Steps, which is 1 hour and 10 minutes.
But in natiscool's video, they found that the actual time it takes to walk the 7,000 Steps is 23 minutes. If a person who is walking continuously only takes 6,000 steps in an hour, that means they can Skyrim's greybeards at High Hrothgar in just 2,300 steps. Alternatively, if the 23 minutes is adjusted for in-game time (which moves more rapidly than real-world time), the 7,000 Steps turns into a whopping 46,000.
Despite all of these varying estimates, the path to High Hrothgar could technically still be 7,000 steps in Skyrim. As Skyrim is near a 1-to-10 scale to real life, 732 steps is a just little over 7,000 steps total. There's no real way to know if this could be considered canonical, given a lack of official statements about the world's size scaling, but it does seem to be the easiest way to come close to the stated number. Regardless of how one counts, the path to the top of the Throat of the World in Skyrim is an excellent example of how difficult it can be to translate in-game distances into real-world ones.
Source: natiscool / YouTube, Joe Dovakhin / Stack Exchange, 3389 / Stack Exchange, zimakaru / Skyrim Fandom
