IrinaN Jul 9, 2018:

@Amy With all due respect to a native linguist, especially with your background, there is no need to complicate a very straightforward question with every dictionary rendition there is. Many times I've been standing in steel-tow boots and a hard hat next to those guys, risking to get hit with a falling object too:-) Tools (not instruments) can fall off the safety belt or out of the pocket of another worker who is climbing first, or the scaffolding were the rest of the crew works, or a platform above the guy climbing the ladder to reach that same platform to do some work (say, there are tools staged for him and someone (or wind, the subject is Ships, Sailing) knocks it down accidentally)). Tracks as in, say, "railroad tracks" or guides do not belong here. Подъем here is a verbal noun.

Amy Obrist Jul 9, 2018:

Because подъем can be a variety of things (acclivity, incline, ascent, slope, uphill grade, rise all come to mind), I am wondering if there is more context. If there is a possibility that an instrument of other objects might fall, what are they falling from? It appears that the inclined path might be part of some equipment and that the instrument or other object could theoretically fall from that. пути could be referring to a track that is part of the equipment and from which the instrument of other object could fall.