How does one "slide" down a ladder?

Must be in the movies... or maybe aboard subs.

In the surface Navy, ladders are kind of like that shown in the link by the Chief. Most are not vertical but slanted as shown. In the surface Navy, such ladders are attacked facing forward (in the direction of travel... away from the ladder)

Physically, supporting ones weight on the palms of ones hands causes too much friction to slide down the hand-rails of that type of ladder.

As mentioned, in the surface Navy, ladders are attacked facing forward. The reason is that if you're in that big of a hurry, there are probably a hundred other guys who are too... and intent on using the same ladder. An even moderately uncontrolled descent might take out the guy in front of you.

To mitigate the problem of head-on collisions, aboard ship there's a traffic pattern... "up and forward starboard, down and aft port." That pretty much gets all the guys moving in the same direction at any given ladder... there's always a couple of guys who forget. But, when they see the hoard descending on them at full tilt, they get the message.

Ladders aboard ship usually pass through holes in the deck called "hatches." Usually, on the overhead below the deck on which the top of the ladder is attached, a bar is mounted to facilitate "swinging" over most of the ladder, even over the rail, to the deck below.

Vertical ladders are another matter. The only ones I tried "sliding down" had their upper terminus attached to the bulkhead a couple of feet above the hatch through which they descended. They're attacked facing the ladder. In my somewhat limited experience, I've never hopped on and slid down from the top. I got myself through the hatch (at least to the waist) and, with a rather loose grip with my hand on the sides of the ladder, kind of hopped off the step/rung on which my feet were placed on the time, placed the instep of each foot against the sides of the ladder. But my "fall" was only a couple of feet. My guess sliding down a fire ladder from a third-story window (perhaps while carrying a weight) would be another proposition. Besides, I believe fire ladders are usually slanted and leaning against something. That would appear to mean that, to prevent being damaged by the rungs as you slide down, you're going to have to come up with a method of your own.

The same way you slide down a rope.

You put the sides of your feet on the sides of the ladder and press in and use your hands to control the slide.

You grab the rails, lean back at about a 30 degree angle (parallel to the rails), take your feet off the steps and ride it to the bottom.

This is what a ship's ladder looks like... http://www.aclindustries.com/images/products/ACL-5...

Wrap you thighs around it, clench, then enjoy the burn. :)