When handled properly a climbing rope will almost never break, but may come loose if improperly tied. The most essential knot every rock climber needs to know is his tie-in knot, used to fasten the rope to his climbing harness. Your life depends on this knot because it's the only thing connecting you to the rope, which in turn is the only thing connecting you to your belayer, whose job it is to catch you, using that rope, if you should happen to fall. The most common type of tie-in knot, as well as the easiest to learn, is the figure eight follow-through.
Step 1
Hold the climbing rope you're tying in to at hip height in your right hand. Adjust the rope so that when held thusly, its free end touches the ground. If you have short legs, adjust the rope so it's longer, draping down on the ground a few inches. Better to have the rope a bit long as opposed to a bit short.
Step 2
Bend the rope nearly double in the place where your hand just was. From now on the short side of this bend, which is just a few feet long, will be known as the running end of the rope. The long side, which should be over a hundred feet long, is the standing end. You're going to use the running end of the rope to tie the knot.
Step 3
Tuck the running end of the rope underneath the standing end, forming an "X" shape with a loop at the top. Bring the running end around the standing end, underneath the loop at the top of the "X", then bring it up through the loop. This creates a standard figure eight knot with a "tail" that's still at least a couple of feet long.
Step 4
Pass the "tail" of the figure eight knot through the tie-in points on your climbing harness, which you should already have on, from bottom to top until you've pulled the figure eight knot flush with the bottom of your harness. Take note of the place where the rope exits the figure eight knot and threads into your harness.
Step 5
Thread the running end of the rope back through the figure eight knot, starting at the place where the rope threads into your harness. The running end should re-trace every curve of the figure eight knot, essentially doubling it, before passing out of the knot on the other side, toward the standing end of the rope. Thread the running end as far as possible through the knot, so that the knot stays close to your harness and you have a running end "tail" of about six inches, or more, protruding from the far side of the knot. If the tail is any shorter than this, you need to re-tie the original knot a bit further up the rope and try again.
Step 6
Tug on both ends of the knot to tighten it, then tug individually on each of the four strands leading out of it (two at each end). Try to tighten the knot as much, and as neatly, as possible. Finally, check the knot against the image of the finished product in the Resources section.
Things You'll Need
- Climbing rope
- Climbing harness
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