Information - Recommendation: steel cable caving ladder

[johnsalomon]

Ohai thar,

for anyone who descends into stuff, I can only recommend in the warmest possible terms buying a steel caving ladder.

I have one of these:

They usually come in 5m or 10m, with full and half width - I have the half width 10m (lighter for the length, if a bit fidgety to climb). It is _awesome_.

They're expensive as hell because they are apparently hand made by blind Bhutanese elf-monks out of fairy poo and meteor dust, but so far it's gotten me into

- an underground freight rail station, descending about 8m (including 5m free hanging climb) down a ventilation shaft
- a WW2 V2 rocket storage bunker, past a steep wall that the locals had seen fit to paint with sticky horrid black anti-climb grease
- a heating plant where the only way down was a several-meter drop into a light well from sidewalk level
- a coal mine, descending into a broken 2nd story window from the roof
- a WW2 air raid bunker through a hole where the ventilation chimney had been ripped off, about 5m down to the stairs below

These things are versatile, compact, light, super duper rugged. If you can pick one up, do it do it do it.

 

[Landsker]

Very handy, but bloody awkward at times!

 

[johnsalomon]

Meh, I have a separate satchel to carry it in; you get pretty good at rolling it up quickly when you're done.

They unroll very quickly, and what's also good is that you can attach them at the bottom using the carabiners to avoid some shitwit stealing them (they can still undo them but hey, them's the breaks.)

 

[Landsker]

Awkward to climb I meant, they do roll up nice and small to be fair.

 

[johnsalomon]

Ah. You're doing it wrong then, I know what you mean. You can't climb it like a regular ladder, you have to do it with your feet pointing towards each other (so each step coming into the ladder from opposing sides) - at least when it's hanging free. It takes a bit of getting used to but it will swing forward a lot less like that.

 

[Landsker]

Bit harder when its up against an uneven mineshaft!

 

[johnsalomon]

(I'm not trying to give you a hard time, I'm just dead curious to understand what it is you are doing that is causing you so much trouble! )

But is it then lying against something, e.g. a diagonal wall? Should be piss easy then, since you just pull it off the surface it's lying against very lightly and step into the rungs, then climb it like a normal ladder...

 

[Speed]

Disagree. For general UE use your much better of with a fibrelite. Bought mine about 4 years ago. Used it loads of times (and to do some of the most epic stuff ive ever done!) £90 original cost has paid for its self a million times over. 5m long and folds so small you hardly notice you have it, much lighter and easy to handle than the wire ladders and its even black for stealthly use! (yes this does matter for some things ive used it for!)

The wire ladders are ok bits of kit but dont see the point unliss your going caving somewhere a fibrelite would get cut to shreads!

 

[johnsalomon]

That's because you're not a fat fuk like me. I would crush your girlie rope ladder like wet newspaper.

 

[Contour]

johnsalomon, what's the specific name of yours? I've been looking around for a suitable caving ladder and you seem happily avid with yours.

 

[Sheepdisease]

Disagree. For general UE use your much better of with a fibrelite. Bought mine about 4 years ago. Used it loads of times (and to do some of the most epic stuff ive ever done!) £90 original cost has paid for its self a million times over. 5m long and folds so small you hardly notice you have it, much lighter and easy to handle than the wire ladders and its even black for stealthly use! (yes this does matter for some things ive used it for!)

The wire ladders are ok bits of kit but dont see the point unliss your going caving somewhere a fibrelite would get cut to shreads!

I realise this was posted a long time ago and hope you are still around. Where did you order it from? I've done a search and they aseem to be nearly three times that price?

 

[pirate]

@Sheepdisease yep fibrelite ladders are pretty expensive these days,this any good for £58 ?

5M Safety Strop Fire Escape Rope Ladder Heavy Duty Fire Safety Ladder With Carabiners

IN STOCK: best prices on 5M Safety Strop Fire Escape Rope Ladder Heavy Duty Fire Safety Ladder With Carabiners, CO1FR01512_1.

www.manomano.co.uk

 

[Sheepdisease]

Thank you, do you know anyone who owns this and has used it? I'm curious how durable it is for multiple uses, as it's designed as an emergency use product so presumably it wouldn't cope well with being used over multiple adventures? Particularly the rungs.

 

[Speed]

Yeh it was probably bought in 2008/9 so adjust for inflation etc.. I actually got it off a sailing supplier iirc. They use them for climbing masts etc. Still wouldn't want a electron ladder for UE tho. Cumbersome!

 

[Sheepdisease]

What's an electron ladder?