Friday Knot for Thought 6-6-14

So I thought that it would be good to post the basic knot that everyone knows with some variations of it that are useful when climbing.

The Followthrough Figure Eight

Followthrough Figure eight and some more knots


On a Bite


(The link above)


I used to use this knot when I would rappel out of the tree in my front yard after setting up an anchor. The nice thing about this knot is that you can put it anywhere you can double up the rope.




Followthrough Figure 8 on a bite with 2 Ears
The double figure eight, also known as the "Bunny Ears", is handy when equalising two anchors using the rope. Many top ropers are fond of this knot. The "ears" can be elongated or shrunk with a little adjustment making equalisation of the load fairly simple. Follow these steps to tie the double figure eight:
Step 1: Start with a figure eight on a bite in the end of the rope. Use a generous bite, way more than pictured, leaving a large loop sticking out the top. Step2: Feed this large loop back into the figure eight.Steps 3, 4 & 5: Continue feeding the large loop through. Not too much though, so as to leave the twin "ears" behind. Now tuck the large loop upwards, under the knot and finally over and around the twin "ears".
Steps 6 & 7: Pull the "ears" tight, and clip each on to your anchors. You can now adjust the tension, equalising the anchors by elongating one ear, and thus shrinking the other ear.

(From chockstone.org)