[TowerTalk] "Chicken Ladder" for Roof Climbing?

[K8RI]

On 6/25/2012 7:06 PM, Eric Rosenberg wrote:
> As I get older, climbing on my 30 degree pitch roof gets scarier and
> scarier.

I still climb towers, fly airplanes, even do aerobatics, but I hate to 
climb roofs and always have! Many, many decades ago I used to install TV 
antennas. I remember sliding from the peak of a roof, all the way down 
and stopping with my toes in the eves troughs.  Finger nails were pretty 
short and the tips of my fingers kinda tender for a while  after that ride.

>
> Does anyone have experience using a "chicken ladder" on their roof? My

We used planks fastened across the steep portion of hip roofed barns 
along with a safety rope.  I know, er knew, one guy who was nearly 90 
that did roofing on those old hip roofed barns and he never hooked to 
anything.  Died in his sleep.

> only experience was in Dublin (EI), where we used similar devices on
> slate roofs at Trinity College (for fear of dislodging slate tiles and
> then sliding off or going through the roof).

A little frost or dew can make slate really ... exciting.

>
> For visual reference, go to:
>
> http://www.acrobuildingsystems.com/files/Downloads/ACRO%2011600%20Specs.pdf
> http://www.acrobuildingsystems.com/files/Downloads/ACRO%2011600%20Install%20Instructions.pdf

Ours were 2 X 4 runners with 1 X 4s (sometimes 1 X 2s) for steps, but 
that was over 50 years ago.

> Acro's other products might come in handy for those of us with
> roof-mounted towers.

I'd really like to increase the pitch on our roof. No antennas up there, 
but it tends to collect a LOT of snow in the winter and it's a royal 
PITA to work in there during summer.  The pitch makes it difficult to 
get enough air flow to keep ice dams from forming, yet this is one very 
efficient house.

73

Roger (K8RI)

> 73,
> Eric W3DQ
> Washington, DC
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