# How do people get onto stilts?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 21, 2000, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773 "2000-10-21T12:35:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773/1 "2000-10-21T12:35:36Z")

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I’m sure in the circus, they have little platforms and stuff, but I mean in normal places. I was at our farmers market and there were 2 guys on 6 foot stilts walking around. Without some apparatus to get them in the stilts, how do they get upright and walking when they’re 6 feet up there?

Jman

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**Author:** ![Carina42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Carina42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carina42)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773/2 "2000-10-21T13:34:17Z")

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When I was a kid I remember making stilts out of pieces of wood & then standing on a fence to step onto them. But I would imagine someone very adept at stilt walking could sort of vault onto them.

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**Author:** ![Minxsmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Minxsmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minxsmom)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773/3 "2000-10-21T13:40:21Z")

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We, too, used to use a fence or something similar for our shorter stilts as kids.

My best guess for the big guys would be ladder.

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**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773/4 "2000-10-21T14:20:01Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> My best guess for the big guys would be ladder.

Duh…sometimes the brain just isn’t working right. Thanks.

Jman

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**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-get-onto-stilts/37773/5 "2000-10-21T14:28:49Z")

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Lean the stilt toward you, get one foot on, and vault forward. You have to be fairly athletic, and reasonably proficent on stilts.