Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Falling off a ladder...

My father at 82, foolishly, was cutting a large tree branch while 10 feet up on a ladder with a chainsaw. He fell and it destroyed his life, 3 months in a coma followed by brain damage and Alzheimer’s. Before this he was in great shape both physically and mentally. If your not young don’t do something like this. Better to have a younger guy do it for you.

Glad you’re ok...Step ladders are potentially hazardous to one’s health. Come to think of it, so are extension ladders.

I’ve falling once, from both.

It hurt!

😎

I have fallen from both.

Perhaps concussion is the reason you all stay in Oregon.

We’re working on getting out, and we will.

😎

Happened to my dad when he was about 67. Landed on his side and knocked the wind out of him, but no broken ribs or bones. He was sore for a spell afterwards.

My bride is the same, DS. She even gives me "the look" when I drag out the 2-step stool to change a light bulb in a fixture in an 8 ft ceiling . . . Used to do that standing on the floor - just can't stretch that high anymore. Did lots of roofing and painting with old wooden extension ladders years ago, but not these days.

Sure does. And much more likely to break something.

Oh man, I am so sorry to hear that!
I used to worry and get on my Dad for getting on ladders when he was on a blood thinner. They want to be so independent at that age.

I'm not very old, but not nearly as young as I used to be.
My friends spent half an hour or more trying to talk me out of it. They said, call the young guys at church and ask them, etc. LOL! IF I could find a few young dudes so motivated, I would be putting them at greater risk because they would not have the experience needed from small, more skill developing jobs. Somebody's bound to get hurt. I can't afford the tens of thousands that an arborist would charge either. After thinking it through, My last resort is to pace myself, prestretches, supplement, and continue with the smaller tops...then work my way up to the large 25-30% off of the biggest ones.
I'm just outta shape from my spring injury and sedentary winter.

I will take your unfortunate Dad's experience to heart and take care to use a double safety harness, tree lash points, helmet....and pray. Thanks.

I've been repainting the soffit, fascia and trim on my house on my days off for the last week or so. 10 to 20 feet. Lots of uneven ground and frequent ladder moves. I swear I've spent as much time setting up the ladders properly as I've spent on them. Time well spent.

I slipped off some wet wooden steps screwed into a tree one time while hunting. Herniated a lumbar disc which required surgery and fractured three thoracic vertebrae. That one hurt.

I stay off of them if at all possible. I have had a few friends who fell off and got seriously injured. Both too old to fully recover. Hitting ground isnt worst of it is getting tangled up in the ladder and busted up.

Pretty sore this morning. Doubt I'll be up on the ladder today.

I spend a fair amount of time up a 12' orchard ladder. They look spooky but they're actually quite stable with the wide set legs. As long as you're careful to set the pole, you're on a wide spread tripod.

My local friendly doc and I were visiting one day and discussing peoples' thinking and behavior. He has a very bright neighbor, Ph.D. and engineer type, who simply doesn't have a lick of common sense. One day he put a ladder up and leaned it on a branch of a tree he was going to cut off, and, just like a cartoon, cut it off between the ladder and the trunk.

I give ladders alot of respect.

maybe 2 years ago I was fixing a gutter due to ice build up, climbed down and my foot slid off the rung. I fell off the ladder, rolled off the deck and broke a guard rail. It hurt like hell but the guard rail slowed me down, plus I had a heavy coat and I landed on the square of my shoulders.

I was lucky I didn't get seriously hurt. But it was the reminder that I'm not a kid anymore.

Having built the log cabin, I was building the porch on the left. I had the 6x6 posts and beam set up on the outside of the porch. The rafters are 14 foot 4x8, white pine.
The high part of the roof is 12 feet above the floor. I had set up a 10 foot extension ladder leaning up against the log wall.
I set the big pine timber on top of the beam, and I was carrying the 4x8 on my shoulder. I was going to carry it up the ladder, and install it with some 3 1/2 inch decking screws.

I climbed up the ladder with the big timber on my shoulder, and the DeWalt cordless drill, the screw gun, in my right hand. I set the 4x8 against the top log, and ran the screw in with the drill. At that instant the ladder kicked out. I had some fast reflexes because I grabbed that beam with my right arm. I dropped the drill and was swinging there, 5 feet above the deck, hanging by my right arm, just wrapped my arm around that timber. I wondered if a single 3 1/2 inch screw could hold my weight.

Five feet is not far to fall, but I wanted to make sure that ladder got settled before I dropped, if my leg got tangled up in those rungs could have been hurt badly.

I hung there for a minute or two, waited for the aluminum ladder to get settled, and then dropped down onto the floor, no injury.
After that, when I set the ladder, I laid down a 10 foot 2x4 on the wooden deck and screwed it in with 2 of the big screws, to hold the ladder in place. I got real serious about secure ladder placement after this incident.

Time and materials to tie in a ladder is never a waste, it is part of the job.

I fell about 26 feet several years ago. I got lucky and all I broke was my nose. I dislocated my shoulder and left foot pretty bad. I busted my head open above my left eyebrow and busted my lip all the way through. I fell on relatively soft ground, which certainly helped quite a bit. I was pretty roughed up and sore as hell for the next several days, but I was darn lucky that I wasn't hurt a lot worse. I wont be getting up there again unless I scaffold it all the way up.

I was thrown from a Horse with my foot caught in the stirrup for about 2 jumps of the horse . my right side was black and blue from my knee to my arm pit for 2 months but I was ok...my closest call.

I worked for a roofing company for a while. We were required to tie off all ladders. However, on most houses, there's nothing to tie to. I've seen ropes tied to rain gutters and about everything else. Most tieoffs won't help a bit to prevent a fall. What it mainly accomplishes is keeping the ladder from sliding off the roof and leaving you stranded up there.