Experiment and try everything till it works. I have a box directly under a flight of stairs and zombies path down them still.
Create a 'science lab' copy/paste your arete somewhere else and see if they can climb up it. Or just experiment on what you already have. Keep making adjustments till it works. Try a really big change so that you can eliminate possibilities. Try changing the angle, or maybe they can't path through the kind of model that you're using. Maybe you need a clip, etc.
Here is an excellent flow chart to help you out:
Do Zombies path properly?
No? Adjust something, and see if they path properly now. Repeat
Yes? 3. Profit
#trialanderror
Maybe the clip from the perk machine is stopping the zombie or the angle of attack is too steep on the arete.