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philbox
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Feb 3, 2003, 6:43 AM
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Registered: Jun 27, 2002
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I`ve been up a 3 stage 40 foot stand alone extension ladder and I can tell you it`s a scary thing when you`re in the middle of the climbing that thing.
It bounces in and out a few feet at a time every time one takes a step up. These ladders are banned now here in Oz but they were handy for some jobs.
Nowadays it is all scaffold to get up to some places. Mind you now that twin rope access is all the rage it is easier to go over the side to access some of those places we had to get to back then.
...Phil...
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apollodorus
Feb 3, 2003, 7:39 AM
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Registered: Feb 18, 2002
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I once went up a 2-stage extension ladder to a second story roof. I'd done it before, but that time I had to do it alone, with nobody to hold the ladder, and it was windy. I thought the ladder was going to slide sideways.
A few months later, I was going back up to the top of the same roof and the bottom of the ladder started to slip out in the soft dirt. I had to grab onto an exposed beam in the eave, and hang there while the guy holding the ladder moved it. That was no big deal, except for the people who were watching. My boss chewed my adze out for that one.
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nadroj
Feb 3, 2003, 8:40 AM
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Registered: Nov 19, 2002
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When I was working as a sparky I had to climb one of the lighting towers at the Port of Brisbane. The whole tower sways about a meter when its windy. I think it was about eighty or ninety feet up.
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one900johnnyk
Feb 3, 2003, 12:23 PM
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Registered: Oct 23, 2002
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40 footer
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euroford
Feb 3, 2003, 1:20 PM
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Registered: Aug 26, 2002
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I'm currently consulting on the work being done at the new Opryland Hotel in grapevine texas. while performing some caulking inspections i climbed up and down several 5 through 9 story tall scaffold ladders!!
it was more like "free solo buildering", about grade 5.001 but scary none the less.
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deafclimber
Feb 3, 2003, 1:26 PM
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Registered: May 4, 2002
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shorter than i climb in gym. proabably 20 ft high on ladder...
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burz
Feb 3, 2003, 1:40 PM
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Registered: Aug 29, 2002
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During my last year of college I was a Stack Tester. I had to climb ladders to the top of the equipment. I did one that was 185 feet (a scrubber for a catalytic cracker unit).
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bakedjake
Feb 3, 2003, 2:35 PM
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Registered: Jan 24, 2003
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We were tearing down the infrastructure of a huge steel castings plant where I grew up. The foreman approaches me as we are on a 2 ft wide scaffold already 40 ft in the air, places a 40 ft extension ladder on the scaffold, fully extends it against a 1/4" thick steel wall thats maybe 20 ft x 40 ft thats supported by the scaffold infrastructure and assorted side members. He hands me the oxy-acetylene cutting torch and says cut the wall out. I quote "but the wall is supporting the ladder", he says" don't worry I have the ladder". I don't how well you all understand mechanical advantage, as climbers I can only imagine all too well. A man holding a ladder, in essence creating a fulcrum point at approx 7 ft while another 33 ft looms above him isn't what I would call an advantage. Well here I am, a good 80 feet in the air, nothing but piles of jagged steel littered beneath me and the only repose!! a few bare patches of concrete floor. Thinking if I can control my fall and the steel wall doen't land on me I may get lucky and not impale myself on a an I-beam. Fate has perculiar ways of working out one's salvation. I'm cutting away the support for my ladder, praying the foreman has super human strength and "BOOM" all of a sudden I'm on fire. My welding helmut with it's dark tinted glass allows me to see nothing but dark and I have no way of telling what went wrong. Let go of both hands or dropping the torch to get a hand free and risk further dangerare not perogatives and now my shirt is on fire with my chest searing in pain, screaming "shut the f&^%$ing torches off" at the top of my lungs I mangae to swing my head against the ladder, disengage my helmut and see that shutting the torch handle valves off though eventually necessary still would not remove me from my predicament, the hose's had ruptured. Flames shooting out at my face and chest, unable to drop the torch for fear the action may cause greater damage, about 2 minutes later the flame stops. One of my co-workers and not a management type mind you climbed down and shut off the main valves. I patted the flames out on my the arm and chest of my shirt, climbed down the ladder and said "f$&k You if you think I'm going back up there. So I would say the farthest I've ever been up an unsupported aluminum ladder [aluminum ladders shouldn't be used in welding] was 80 feet.
Thanks
David
"Some of the worlds greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible." - Doug Lawson
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dlintz
Feb 3, 2003, 2:39 PM
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Registered: Sep 9, 2002
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40 foot ladder with no one holding it, oh and a 50 lb. toolbox in one hand.
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jbur
Feb 3, 2003, 2:50 PM
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Registered: Oct 14, 2001
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110 footer on a ladder truck.
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flamer
Feb 3, 2003, 5:10 PM
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Registered: Oct 22, 2002
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As a fireman I routinely go up and down ladders. Up to about 110ft(on a ladder truck) We also use 45 ft, "tri-fly" ladders. Ok not that big of a deal right? Now try carrying an unconcious person down one! That's scary!
josh
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ktwo
Feb 3, 2003, 5:29 PM
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Registered: May 10, 2002
Posts: 443
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Uh... one time i had to change the lightbulb in the garage, so i borrowed the stool out of the kitchen.
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cliffhanger9
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Feb 3, 2003, 5:48 PM
Post #13 of 31
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Registered: Nov 26, 2002
Posts: 2275
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40' rope ladder...well actually 6mm cable ladder
thrilling!!
ROCK ON!!
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pbcowboy77
Feb 3, 2003, 6:07 PM
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Registered: Jun 9, 2002
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For my job I have to climb odd things all the time. I've c;imbed a wire rope ladder to the top of the Stapples Center, where the Lakers play. It was about 100' to 120' if I can rember correctly.
-Zac
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baywolf
Feb 3, 2003, 6:23 PM
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Registered: Nov 14, 2002
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I have climbed a 107' aerial ladder at my station. it gets a little shakey at the top. very fun though.
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jughead
Feb 3, 2003, 6:46 PM
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Registered: Sep 23, 2002
Posts: 292
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ladderclimbing.com roflol!!!!!
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stevematthys
Feb 3, 2003, 9:26 PM
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Registered: Sep 13, 2000
Posts: 1248
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10ft
bring it.
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calpolyclimber
Feb 3, 2003, 9:50 PM
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Registered: Nov 26, 2002
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Apollodorus- Ever been tempted to climb those little ladders that go up the Morro Bay power plant towers? I guess if rappeling is your thing (its not mine) that would give you your fix, haha.
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under_score
Feb 3, 2003, 10:33 PM
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Registered: Dec 20, 2002
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a sailboat mast, 100 feet up. it sways back and forth over 10 feet. it was scary $#!& the first time, a rush the second, and routine every time after that.
~eric
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jgill
Feb 4, 2003, 3:33 AM
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Not tall, but historically interesting. I was in grad school at the U. of Alabama in the early 1960s when Paul "Bear" bryant was the football coach. He used to be hauled to the top of a 60 foot metal tower, where he oversaw football practice. For years, whenever I would visit my mother in Tuscaloosa, I would sneak into the practice field and do laps on the outside of the tower, with its little overhang at the top.
1998 was my last visit there.
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rprp
Feb 4, 2003, 7:56 PM
Post #21 of 31
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Registered: Dec 27, 2002
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We used to crawl under the fence and climb a radio tower (that was on a hill) to watch sunsets. It was a few hundred feet tall and had a great view. We always joked that it would be a good place to watch a thunderstorm roll in. Somehow we never did that one.
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kevlar
Feb 4, 2003, 8:16 PM
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Registered: Jun 5, 2002
Posts: 272
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a 4ft ladder while changing out the light bulb...in my head
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passthepitonspete
Feb 4, 2003, 8:38 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2001
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1979 - Carpenter-Swago cave system - Swago Valley, West Virginia.
Five thirty-foot cable ladders joined end to end and dropped down Carpenter's Pit. Under a waterfall, of course. In the dark.
Hanging on for dear life. Biceps burning.
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yeti
Feb 5, 2003, 1:57 AM
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Registered: Sep 30, 2002
Posts: 57
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Canada has many abandonned fire towers which were manned for early detection of forest fires. The tallest ladder I've climbed was on one of those shaky constructions, about 30 meters high. It did have a No Climbing sign, and did miss quite a few step in the ladder.
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