Confused again.. je suis monté par?

Question

I am confused. J'ai monté les escaliers.. Why.. unless I am a carpenter and I have a set of escaliers on my shoulder, surely I remain the intransitive subject .. I am not doing anything to the stairs.. I am climbing using the stairs. I am carrying myself, not the stairs. Could you use je suis monté par les escaliers? to escape the trap?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Mark, 
Je suis monté par les escaliers 
means you went up using the stairs, not the lift for example.
Je suis monté par l'ascenseur = I went up using the lift 
Je suis monté par l'escalateur/ le tapis roulant = I went up using the escalator
So you are not physically going up the stairs as in 
monter les escaliers = to climb the stairs

Chris Wirt · Answer

Je monte les escaliers can theoretically mean two things:(1) I am going upstairs.(2) I am taking the stairs up. (doesn't make sense).Since (2) doesn't make sense, it is always interpreted as (1). By the way, one also says:Je monte mon cheval / mon vélo. -- I'm mounting my horse / my bike. (I get up on my horse / my bike.)