What is this ladder-climbing game?

[fatdave]

The reason I ask in Probability is more because I am interested in the strategies involved.... but to know the strategies, I have to be reminded of the rules.

The game: 3 ladders of equal length. I am not quite sure of the rules, but I think it is: you and your opponent take turns climbing the ladders, and the first one to the top wins. The twist is that you can pick any of the three ladders, on each turn, possibly including the one your opponent is on. I'm not sure of the exact rules, there may be others that I am forgetting.

If there are no other rules, I think the best strategy is thus:

If you are first to act,
I'm sure the strategy is similar to Nim... but without the rules I don't know.

Many, many years ago (17 years ago maybe), it was also in the back of 3-2-1 Contact, written in BASIC that you could type in to the interpreter and play. This is the only place I've seen it.