Having worked in construction for quite a few years in the past, I'm afraid I have to say that I've done some pretty stupid things with ladders to get the job done.
One in particular was when I drove 2-1/2 hours to replace a piece of glass in a sunroom. I arrived to find that the sunroom was on the second level of the house and I only had an 8' ladder. I'd be damned if I was going to drive 2-1/2 hours back and 5 hours round trip again to bring an extension ladder. No one was home so I borrowed various and sundry items from the homeowners yard to get myself up high enough to do the job. I ended up with a stack of objects that, among other things, included a picnic table, a wheel barrow and a couple old fashioned aluminum lawn chairs. Definitely not OSHA approved but I got 'er done!
There were some of the others, like extending a long plank from scaffolding with a couple helpers on the scaffold to 'counter-balance' me. Sometimes on the job you've got to get creative to get it done.