Need a way to gain some altitude? Want to do so in an artful but dangerous fashion? Consider the torqued cable-stay ladder I recently built, dubbed “Crusoe.”
This object was assembled from mixed materials: an existing 5′ ladder upper segment recycled from a bunk bed, a hand-made lower segment reinforced with carbon spars, four Timberlok screws and about 25′ of quarter-inch jute rope.
The rope transmits flex from the segmented rails to the anchor points on the hanger and foot of the ladder. They are bow-string taught to reduce stretch, achieved by the two torque pegs pictured here: