Essential Knots

In this article I've included most of the knots climbers use. In the beginning, you'll want to know just a few knots and know them well. This is far better than trying to remember a dozen but never being quite sure of any of them.

Knots are evaluated according to four criteria:

Security Does the knot stay tied reliably?

Strength Every time you bend a rope under stress, you've slightly weakened the rope. All knots bend the rope, and so all knots reduce to a degree the strength of the rope in which they are tied. In the days of natural-fiber ropes, this was an important consideration. With the advent of nylon and the newer materials like Kevlar and Spectra, the "strength" of a knot is seldom questionable.

Symmetry Is the knot so visibly clean and obvious that there's no mistaking it? Some knots are harder to "see'" than others, and in the beginning at least, you ought to stick with the symmetrical ones.

Tightening Under Load How easy will it be to untie the knot after it's been heavily loaded?

Knots fall under a few general categories. For example, you'll see retraced knots. Begin with a knot put into a single strand to be followed—retraced—by the second strand as the knot is completed. You will also get to know knots tied on a bight (doubled loop of rope); such knots create good, quick links for clipping into anchors.

Purists distinguish between bends (what the rest of us would call knots) and hitches (loops involving single strands of rope wrapped around something). We can put this distinction aside and call the whole bunch knots—with apologies to the sailors.