Climbing The Mast

[ebb]

There are times when you have to get up the mast right away.
Mostly you'd wait for a calm day to get up there to straighten the windex or change a bulb.

Have we had this discussion here? Can't find it on Search.

There's the bosun's seat and a number of propriatory versions - always requiring TWO people, one more trustworthy than the other. There are rope and strap ladders that you haul up the sail track. And an erector-set metal ladder that you stack on your sailtrack. And a winch you haul up on the mainsheet halyard that you haul yourself up with. These all suppose that you have the main's track available.

These methods all generated famous expressions containing the phrase:
Your life is hanging on a line.

Climbing the mast is becoming more daunting for me. It's basicly not a safe or easy endeavor. It's also the origin of another well known expression: PITA.
Made a rilly cool Hervey Garret Smith continuous rope ladder once
that my feet hated. The problem was that if you had to spend time up there it was on one foot.
And bought Capt Somebody's nylon strap (halyard) ladder that needed two hands and both knees to hold on to the mast with - couldn't DO anything once up there.

OK, Does anybody on this Forum have mechanical mast climbing steps attached to their mast?

Recently got two folding steps to look at. One is aluminum and twice as heavy as the glass-filled nylon one that has recently come on the market.
These folding steps are open sided of course - in contrast to closed steps that capture your foot. They come in various forms as well, usually stainless,
in strap and rod. These have all been skinnyed down in the interest of weight and windage to the point that, if you had these permanently installed steps, they be available at any time to climb and it's hard to imagine the blind pop rivets holding with the body being thrown around while clinging for dear life. Good lord, five closely spaced rivets hold the nylon step to the mast, and it's SO EASY to imagine wrenching one off!

It's amazingly difficult to imagine my foolish life hanging on glass-filled nylon step. But it's what I would go with unless somebody can talk me out of it?
Anybody installing permanent steps? If not why not? If you are, what have you chosen?