"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
...
I have always been terrified of going up on my roof. Today I decided that
was silly; people spend all day on them, how dangerous could it be. It was
something I had to get over.
Walking up the roof is actually pretty easy, but walking down it is not.
Walking forward I feel like I might fall, and walking backwards is really
clumsy. I think it is just harder to keep your weight over your feet
going down than up.
How is it best done?

I think most of what you feel is psychological than anything, but it really
depends on the roof pitch. I had the same basic concerns last year, did it
and found that on a shallow roof walking is no big deal. Think about it, do
you get that vertigo feeling when walking down a hill? of course not,
because there is land all around you, its only when there isn't anything
around you that you get all twitchy. I mountain climb religously, it took a
few months to get used to the lack of solid ground around you, but now free
climbing ledges isn't a big deal anymore - well I take that back, it IS a
big deal it just isn't phobic to me anymore.

For me the biggest problem I had was stepping off the ladder onto the roof,
I still have that problem and that same problem has prevented me from taking
difficult routes when mountain climbing.

Don't walk backwards, you will trip and fall.