Praise be to Allah.
There is nothing wrong with regarding the first lap as valid and continuing from there, if he started saa‘i but found it too difficult to cope with the crowds, so he moved to an upper level. There is nothing wrong with that, and he may continue from having done the first lap, because the entire structure is the place of saa‘i (mas‘aa), and it does not take a long time to move from the lower level to the upper level.
End quote.
Majmoo‘ Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (22/429, 430).
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