Quick & easy building of a rope ladder. New concept with supported rungs & full recovery of the rope

Today I want to show you how to build a rope ladder with the following criteria. First of all, I want to be able to fully assemble and mount the rope ladder from the ground. Even if the beam or the branch where I want to fix it is higher than I can reach. Secondly, I want to be able to rebuild and disassemble the rope ladder from the ground after the last use. And thirdly, I want to build a comfortable rope ladder where you don't lose your balance after you step on the first rung. I mean this. And I will show you a trick how you can tie the rungs parallel. So stay tuned if this sounds interesting for you. Hello YouTube! Welcome to another Swiss Army Knife project video. How to build a rope ladder I learned about 30 years ago in a workshop for scout leaders here in Switzerland. And even if I didn't use this knowledge often, I can remember the problems I struggled with every single time exactly. One of these problems was to make the knots for the rungs like this that the steps became parallel. My second problem was that I always had problems because my upper body went backwards when I tried to climb the ladder. And another problem was how to attach the rope from the ground when the beam or the branch was higher than I could reach. Recently my friend Detlef from the YouTube channel Bushcraft and Nature visited me. Together we looked for solutions for my problems. Thanks a lot for your support. Before I start to show you how I build a rope ladder, let me tell you my thoughts on rope ladder safety. In my opinion, an improvised bushcraft style rope ladder with wooden steps is always just a temporary thing and never a long-term solution. A rope ladder needs to be inspected before every use because a rung can slip out of the lashing or a rung can become rotten or an anchor point or a tie can become loose or whatever. That's why my opinion is never use a rope ladder to climb higher than 3 or 4 meters. Use professional climbing gear if you want to climb higher. A dynamic climbing rope is not the best rope for making such a ladder. A rope ladder is a rope from natural fibers, jute or hemp. Because such a rope has much less stretch, less flex. But in this case I have to use a climbing rope because I don't have another rope. My plan is to attach a rope ladder at this branch. If the branch is higher than you can reach, you have to be able to pull up the rope ladder. Because I want to be able to assemble and mount the rope ladder from the ground. That's why I start like this. Search the middle point of the rope. Make a loop with a simple overhand knot. Throw the rope over the branch. Pull on the side with the middle loop until you have just some meters left on the open end. Take something like a tent bag and a hammer stick. Hammer the tent bag into the forest floor and hang the loop in. It doesn't have to be super stable. This bag doesn't have to carry my weight. I make this only because I prefer to tie the knots for the steps on the hanging rope than on the ground. Next step is to cut some rungs with the wood saw. Now I show you two tricks with the Marlin spike hitch that the rungs became parallel. Work on both strands at the same time. Hold your hands like this with the thumb facing downwards. Grab the rope. Make two loops. Now grab the standing part of the line, pull it through and create a pocket. Put the rung through these two pockets. With this method I am able to assemble the rungs parallel right away. When I have attached the top rungs, I pull on the rope until the top rung is just under the branch where I fixed my rope ladder. If you don't like to work on both strands parallel, here is another way how you can bind a Marlin spike hitch. Keep the rung at the position you want at the end. Clamp the rope from below with the thumb and don't let it go until the end. Wrap the lower part of the rope once around the rung. The turning is facing outwards. Grab the rope from inside, form a loop and put it over the end of the branch. The thumb is still holding the rope. Now tighten the knot a little at the top and at the bottom. Release your thumb and tighten the knot even more. In this way the rung stays where you want it to tie. Do the same in the reverse direction on the other side. Like this you can also bind the rungs parallel. When all ladder steps are attached, I loosen the rope from the tent peg, gather it up and throw it again over the branch from the same direction as the first time. Please note that the second wrap should cross the first wrap. Like this you get a sufficiently high friction and clamping resistance. On a branch with coarse soft bark, the rope ladder will already hold like this. But as backup we make a claw hitch on both sides of the highest rung we can reach. Now the rope ladder is actually done. But I still have the problem that I lose the balance and falling back as soon as I step on the first rung. I know that I should climb the rope ladder from the side, but this is not what I want. I want to try a solution with two poles which support the ladder steps. To demount the rope ladder from the ground is quite easy. Just open the claw hitch on both sides, throw the rope one time from the back side over the branch and pull the ladder down. Even after using the ladder, the rungs can be easily pulled out of the marling spike hitch. So my friends, as you could see, the ladder worked perfect for climbing up and climbing down. It's stable and secure. What do you want more? Now I have stopped recording this video. It starts to rain and I can hear that the thunderstorm is coming and the mosquitoes are eating me. The next four, five, six weeks I will do a YouTube break for me, for my kids, for my family, so that we can enjoy the holidays and that I can prepare some new videos. I will be back, I guess, mid or end of August. Thank you so much for your support, thank you so much for watching my videos and I hope I can count on you again when I'm back with my next video. Ciao!