A lot of friction, but it's working!
https://youtu.be/u6E1-i7fYuM
The people who designed this ladder are a lot smarter than me. The pulley system for the bottom/middle section has a 2:1 reduction ratio with no loose rope ends. It starts attached to the lower left of the middle section, then loops through a pulley on the upper end of the bottom section, goes down to a pulley on step 2 of the middle section, through the step to the right side, through a pulley there and up to a pulley on the top of the bottom section. Then down to a double pulley on step one of the bottom section, up to a pulley on step 2 of the middle section and back down to the double pulley on step 1 of the bottom section before it ends attached to the middle section right side. Simple, right?