Mountain Climbing Has Tied the Knot with Safety

Mountain climbing is a sport that doesn’t only train your body to be physically fit – it also equips your brain to be mentally robust. In a hazardous environment like mountains, knowing how to tie a knot is very important. Ample knowledge about it coupled with the correct equipment will surely make you safer than knowing nothing at all. Any individual who would like to go hiking should have a basic knowledge of knots and knots system to ensure his or her safety and increase the ability to undertake the adventures that comes along with mountain climbing.

See also: Why do people hike even if it’s dangerous?

It is very tempting to learn as many knots as possible, given the number of knots that can be learned and used in our everyday lives. However, it is very important to take not that it is better to learn and master just a handful of knots which are essential to help us survive in specific situation. 

DECIDE WHICH KNOT TO USE

Tying is a knot should not be done just for the sake of tying or joining ropes together. A good knot should be:

1. Strong – This is probably the first quality that comes to mind when deciding which not to use in certain situations. However, this is not the sole criteria for selecting a knot.
2. Secured – A strong knot doesn’t necessarily mean that a knot is secured. Defining the security of a knot is a critical task. You can be sure that a knot is secured if it has the ability to stay tied even in the toughest situations.
3. Easy to tie, hard to forget – A good knot has an ease for visual inspection. This means that your knot should be quickly recognized by your team if it is tied correctly or not. Furthermore, why should we choose a complicated knot over a simple knot if their purposes are also the same?

IMPORTANT KNOTS THAT MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS SHOULD KNOW

Here, we have listed 5 of the many important knots that mountain climbers should know:

1. Water Knot (Stopper Knot)

·         Used for tying flat webbing to itself or to another piece of webbing.

·         Also used for joining ropes together.

·         A secured knot.

Watch this tutorial on how to tie a Water Knot:

2. Figure Eight Knot (Single Loop Knot)

·         Used as a climber’s harness to the end of a rope.

·         Used for stopping ropes from running out of retaining devices.

·         Generally stronger than a basic Bowline Knot.

Watch this tutorial on how to tie a Figure Eight Knot:

3. Bowline Knot (Single Loop Knot)

·         Also called as the “King of Knots”

·         Used for securing the end of a line around something.

·         Used for making a secured loop at the end of a rope.

Watch this tutorial on how to tie a Bowline Knot:

4. Prusik Knot (Hitches)

·         A life-saver knot in the mountains.

·         Used to get a better grip on another rope.

·         Enables you to ascend a rope or haul up a load.

Watch this tutorial on how to tie a Prusik Knot:

5. Clove Hitch (Hitches)

·         Great to use when it’s under a constant tension.

·         Doesn’t take a lot of rope and can be easily adjusted.

·         Used for connecting rope to anchors.

Watch this tutorial on how to tie Clove Hitch:

For you to be able to survive mountain climbing, it is essential to know these knots. However, tying knots under pressure is a different story. Read this article about a climber who wasn’t able to secure his knots and suffered an unfortunate event.

You don’t expect yourself to be an expert in this skill in just a snap of a finger. Learning to tie a knot will take time – it will surely be difficult in the beginning. All you have to do is practice. Over time, you would know which knots to use for specific situations.