A person is climbing a wooden ladder on a very steep, jagged, rock cliff.
A man is climbing a ladder on a cliff in hopes of not falling to his death.
You can not infer he wants to fall to his death.
He may not have a belief like not falling to his death
We do not know how the person (who may or may not be a man) is climbing the ladder.  It could be that he is climbing confidently and not "in hopes of not falling to his death."