"Eigenvector" wrote in
news

"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,

Getting off the roof back on ladder is my Mr Yuk. Working on reroofing a
house now. Fortunately there is a one story roof below the 2nd floor
roof. Made ladder out of 2x4's. Used siderails that were 2-3ft higher
than eave and put no rungs above eave. Always go up and down between
siderails. Awesome.

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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.