Ladders

[Will Dean]

What kind of rope?

If you fall from above your attachment point using a static rope and no energy absorbtion pack, you will almost certainly break something, be it rope, harness or anchor point.

It sounds to me that you're looking at a small fall, a sudden jerk/ripping noise and then a longer fall.

I thought the ladder had fallen down.... Even if you have an assistant, they're not going to be able to climb an ordinary ladder, arrange an adult on their shoulder, cut the lanyard and then climb down with you.

If you're unable to move when you're dangling in your harness, you'll be dead within a short time for reasons which are not *completely* understood but are well documented. Look up 'suspension trauma'. If you've fallen on a rope which is tied through a window or over the eaves of a house, you'll have been bashed into the wall as you fell.

I think you'd be better putting the forty quid towards a higher quality ladder - I don't think you're going to do much useful for that in terms of bits of nylon.

Will

[John Rumm]

True, but I don't think there is actually much tractile grip from the top of a ladder anyway. It is the ladder base that does the lions share of preventing the ladder slipping away from the wall. The top just prevenets it falling to the side. So the rubber contact from the wheels probably does a better job of this than the normal ladder end pieces.

[meow2222]

10mm nylon tow rope. The harnesses have limited energy absorption, the rope has a little but not a lot. The idea is to minimise fall distance.

Since one is using ropes, the ladder can usually be tied to prevent it falling down. With ladder and harness attached to the same point or same rope, the fall victim will end up next to the ladder - this is only beneficial for short falls of course.

However there is more than one scenario and more than one approach. If the faller is uninjured the assistant can reposition the ladder and hook the harness to the ladder using one of the 2 short clip on ropes, move the person onto the ladder and either release them from the main rope or reconnect to a lower point on the rope.

If the faller is injured they can be lowered via the rope using either of a couple of different methods.

Hmm, didnt know bout that one. Guess its not so useful then.

What we need then is a controlled decent mechanism, a speed limiter.

NT

[Huge]

God. I didn't know any of this.

BTW, my solution was to buy a scaffold tower. Ladders are scarey.

[peter]

If you really want to do it the climber's (safe) way you need something like this:

plus a proper harness, so a hundred quid. For a thorough explanation of the dangers of falling even short distances on a static rope see here:

[Stuart Noble]

Jesus, what is this with ladders? The only accidents I've heard of round here are to do with people used to heights who get sloppy e.g. stepping off ladders at the top when they thought they were at the bottom (probably while listening to Radio 1). D-i-yers are the least likely to have accidents I would have thought.

[tony sayer]

Christ that is very scary!, as there have been times I've worked in the past almost dangling in a body harness and haven't felt too well afterwards!!!!!

[The Medway Handyman]

Even more scary, my daughter didn't know anything about it either - and she's a paramedic with London Ambulance Service. It all made perfect sense to her once she read it.

[meow2222]

NT

[John Rumm]

as 0.5% - 1.5%

That means a 1m fall would result in deceleration from about 4.5m/sec to rest in (say) 1cm - or about 1000G if my sums are right!

As they say, "that has got to hurt!"

[tinnews]

It's pretty well known to anyone who does rock climbing, if someone falls you have to get them off the rope as soon as possible even at risk of some further injury.

[Roger]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

It may well be well known now but it didn't used to be the case. The danger of dangling on the end of a rope as generally understood in the

50s/60s was said to be that the rope round the waist restricted the breathing to such an extent that a dangling climber could die in as little as 10 minutes which was the impetus to move to climbing harnesses for many climbers, particularly those who were unconvinced of the superiority of a hemp waist loop over a nylon rope tied directly round the waist. Incidentally a body hanging free either tied on round the waist or in a sit harness does not appear to be at risk as both legs and trunk hang below the central support and the head below the heart.

The business of fall factors has been known for some time. IIRC it was brought to the attention of British climbers in an article in the Climber & Rambler early/mid 70s by someone called Kimber who may well have done at least some of the original thinking. Even to a mechanical engineer it appeared initially counter intuitive to suppose that the forces on an arrested body depended on the ratio of run-out rope to fall distance rather than the length the fall.