Aerial Ladder

[K-Town16]

So we climbed and aerial ladder the other day and used a rope for safety and someone asked "If you are on the actual job and you are climbing on a steeper angle do you use safety rope?" and our instructor didn't give them a good answer. So I'm coming here to help my friend out and get this question answered. Please Help.

[pasobuff]

Whenever you climb an aerial, you should have some type of fall arrester such as a ladder belt.....doesn't matter what angle it is at.....

[BoxAlarm187]

So we climbed and aerial ladder the other day and used a rope for safety and someone asked "If you are on the actual job and you are climbing on a steeper angle do you use safety rope?" and our instructor didn't give them a good answer.

I'm perplexed....what kind of rope were you using, and how was it attached to you and/or the ladder? Typically a ladder belt is worn, and no ropes are involved in climbing.

[N2DFire]

I'm perplexed....what kind of rope were you using, and how was it attached to you and/or the ladder? Typically a ladder belt is worn, and no ropes are involved in climbing.

Box,
I'm going out on a limb and make an assumption or two because I've seen this before in training & recruit testing.

The rope is usually attached to the climber via a ladder belt, last chance (Class I Harness) or a Seat harness (Class II) and payed out over the tip of the ladder and back to a belay person on the ground.

The thought process is that if the inexperienced climber happens to slip that the belay person would catch them (hopefully the belay person is keeping the rope fairly slack free so the falling person can't build up too much momentum)


K-Town16
To answer your (and your friends) question - simply put No.

On the job (aka in the event of actual use on a fireground) there is no safety rope used. There is (as Box & Buff both mentioned) a ladder belt that is typically used; however this is only "locked in" to the ladder once you reach a working position or if you have to stop for whatever reason along the way. You are not constantly clipping & unclipping as you climb.

The best "safety device" when climbing any ladder (ground or aerial device) is to maintain 3 points of contact with the ladder at all times (2 feet & 1 hand or 2 hands and 1 foot).

Again - my guess is that the rope in your scenario was a safety issue because you were Jr's/Explorers/Cadets (what have you) and/or were inexperienced in climbing an aerial device.

Hope that helps clear things up a bit for you.

[FWDbuff]

So we climbed and aerial ladder the other day and used a rope for safety and someone asked "If you are on the actual job and you are climbing on a steeper angle do you use safety rope?" and our instructor didn't give them a good answer. So I'm coming here to help my friend out and get this question answered. Please Help.

If you dont know what the answer is, how do you know if the instructor gave a good answer or not?