Multi block LADDER mining

I made a rope ladder that when placed, it duplicates its self in every air block below it (i hope i explained that well). anyways, i want the player to only break one part of the ladder and the whole ladder breaks while the player only gets one rope ladder (tell me if i need to explain better) i don't know how to do this. i could just make the code manually but that would take forever, so im wondering is there an automatic way to do this? maybe with variables?

Edit: just a reminder that these ladders can be as long as the height limit all the way to bedrock