all right let's learn some knots shall we?
now if you are one of these people
who cannot remember how to tie knots and
when to use which knot good news I
gotcha in this video I'm gonna show you
the most essential knots that can get
you out of any situation and techniques
how to tie them super fast and in a way
that you will not forget how it's done
alright let's begin if I would ask you
to tie the most simple knot you can on
the Rope you would do something like
this
and if you tighten this you will get an
overhand knot
now if you would do the same what we
just did
and wrap the tail once more
you get something like that and if you
tighten this and dress it well
you will get a double overhand knot
which is also known as a stopper knot so
this is the knot that should always live
at the end of your rope and it's
obviously used
to stop your rope from slipping through
your bling device and dropping your
climber to death or yourself alright
let's continue
make a gun with your right hand and
place the Rope like so where the gun is
pointing towards the end of the Rope
now take the rope and wrap around your
fingers like so and make an X here
wrap the Rope again
and put the tail through the X
like so
so now if you look into this you will
notice that on one side we have two
parallel strands while on other side we
have an X and the Rope is going through
the X if we tighten this we get a double
overhand again or a stopper knot again
so in full speed it looks something like
this
and if you would want a triple overhand
you make an X and then you make one
extra Loop
kind of like extra X and put the detail
through
both of them
like so
so you would get that triple overhand
knot
okay let's make a gun again and
previously we had the gun pointing
towards the tail this time we flip it
around the gun points away from the tail
and we will tie the same knot as before
where we go once make an X
and now we make a byte and put this byte
through the X
like so
if you tighten this
you should get exactly the same knot
which has two parallel strands on one
side and an x on the other side so this
knot is a sliding knot if I load it it
slides
until it cannot slide anymore so this is
really great knot if you need a tight
connection to some object for example in
rope axis it's very commonly used to
hook to the carabiners it prevents the
Carabiner from flopping around or cross
loading plus this knot is very very
small and compact so this might be very
useful in certain rigging situations
where you need to get very close to your
Carabiner now one really important
aspect about this knot is that it's
pretty much impossible to visually check
it that's why you have to do a function
test meaning take your load line and
pull
the loop should get smaller and the knot
will tighten if you tied it incorrectly
as you pull on the load line this is
what happens
the tail will slip out
and this is called the death knot for a
reason and Def not basically happens
then during the tying if you point your
gun towards the tail so instead of that
as I showed you before you point away
from the tail and then you will get a
knot which functions properly
but always always function check now to
tie this knot around an object take the
tail and then you start wrapping this
tail around the Rope like so so you go
once
and then when you go second time you
form an X here and now you want to take
the tail and pass through the X
as always
tail goes through the X and since this
knot consumes very little rope I like
using it as a stopper knot tied to my
red end of my row bag
so a great little knot
but the biggest disadvantage of it is if
you load it really hard you will have
really hard time untying it in this case
when you have a carabiner it's okay
because you can unclip from Carabiner
and then it's much easier to untie
however if you would tie onto some
object
then it's another story alright let's
make another stopper knot but this time
don't make it tight leave a little hole
here so you can stick your finger
through however instead of sticking my
finger through I'm gonna stick another
rope through now I'm gonna tighten the
orange knot a little bit
and now here is the trick notice the
last strand on the orange knot on the
right side so it's this one and it kind
of goes that way
so the trick is to start tying the green
knot the same direction if I go the
other direction it's not going to be
good so I go the same direction I cross
over itself
which forms an X as always and then I
put the tail under the X as always
so if I tighten the green knot
I tighten the orange knot
and now if I pull them together we come
together
and form a knot which looks like this
where I have four parallel strands on
one side and if I flip it over I have
two x's one
two so this knot is called double
fisherman's knot and it's because
fissures use this knot to join their
fishing lines however in fishing lines
since they're very skinny and slippery
we often use triple or quadruple version
of this knot while in climbing it's
obviously a great knot to join two ropes
it's really secure you can use different
diameters of the ropes however one
disadvantage of this knot is that same
as with scaffold before if you load it
really heavy it's gonna be hard to untie
and of course there are other knots for
joining two ropes that are even better
in certain situations I will cover them
in future episodes but for the basics
double fisherman's is what everybody
should know okay next is the king of the
knots a figure of eight and there are
two versions of this knot
and if that's something new for you I've
already made a video showing you my
ninja method how to tie this knot in in
a way that's easier to untie now if you
know how to tie figure of eight into
your harness you also know how to tie it
into some other object so you follow the
same procedure of follow through
so in case you don't want to use a
carabiner here this is a great option so
the method where you tie into your
harness or you tie around some object is
called the figure of eight follow
through however there is another way to
tie a figure of eight when you want to
do this in the middle of the rope and as
you can see this method is really fast
okay so this method is actually easier
to show and to explain but I will try to
do my best so I have a loop here with
the tail at the bottom of my poem it's
not here it's here
like so and now I will have to whip this
tail
and this is how it looks you whip like
so
now at this point notice the hole where
this thumb is poking through
and use the left hand to take this tail
under and through that hole where the
thumb is poking through and I use my
index finger of the right hand to come
and help to pull it through
pull it through
and at this point this strand which goes
to the tail sometimes wants to be on
this side but actually it needs to be on
the other side
now if you tighten everything
so the tail strand needs to come
kind of on top
this is bottom it needs to come on top
if that's the case you will get a
perfect figure of eight which is also
going to be easy to untie because the
load line this line
goes in the middle
so real live speed looks something like
this
where I just need to fix this strand
sometimes a little bit
so this way of tying figure of eight is
called Figure of eight on a byte
so basically you need the secure
attachment point on the Rope figure of
eight
now when it comes to safety you don't
need any stopper knots for figure of
eight but this tail should be at least
10 centimeters long so basically one
fist or longer
in my case I have two and a half fists
so it's more than enough and if you
would have a thinner rope you can
obviously proportionally have this tail
shorter alright now let's learn about
hitches now if you're wondering what's
the difference between a hitch and a
knot and not can hold its own shape
without any external objects needed like
figure of eight while a hitch
cannot so this is holding me but if I
remove this external object from the
hitch the hitch will fall apart okay
let's start with the cloves hitch take
the rope with the right hand like so now
the left hand crosses under the right
hand and takes the Rope legs so notice
that the thumbs are pointing away from
each other and I have a little bit of
rope slag between the hands now at this
point uncross your arms and you will get
something like this
now the right Loop goes in front of the
left one like so
so once again I cross my arms I uncross
them and then the right Loop slides on
top of the left one and then you clip
this to your Carabiner or any other
object
so and then you can pull on the ends to
tighten it
now what's great about this hitch is
that you can pull on either side of the
rope and it's gonna hold and if you want
to adjust
you loosen the belly in the middle of
the knot
like so let's say I want to stay at this
length so I'm going to pull the other
end now like so
and I'm secure so this cross and
uncrossed technique works really well
when you have two hands
and if you don't have two hands
available this is what you do you clip
the Carabiner as always normally now
since the gate is pointing to the right
I'm gonna use my right hand and I'm
gonna flip it upside down with the thumb
pointing down and take the other rope
which is behind the Carabiner at this
point I'm gonna untwist my hand and clip
it to the gate
and screw the carabeter
now when the gate is pointing left you
need to use your left hand so the same
flip it upside down with the thumb
pointing down grab the Rope untwist your
hand
and clip it to the gate
and cloveshitch is another great knot if
you like playing with sticks
it holds really well
I guess this will get a lot of comments
right
a great visual check if you did it
correctly both strands that exit the
hitch need to exit from the middle of
the knot so we are both kind of squeezed
inside
and we're exiting on the opposite sides
there is a rope between them okay next
hitch starts exactly the same as before
but at this point instead of sliding the
right Loop over the left one imagine
that you have a book in front of you and
these Loops are kind of like pages of
the book and you want to close the book
like so
so here is another angle I cross my arms
I uncross and then I close the book now
what I'm doing here I'm twisting this
like so before I'm clipping to the
Carabiner and the reason for this twist
that I did is to keep
the brake side of the Rope this one away
from the gate so that this rope when
it's running it's not running over the
gate
so when I load the knot will flip this
is totally normal and then I can go down
like so
and as you might have guessed this is
the knot or the hitch that you would use
in case you would drop your billing
device and now you need to go down so
take a bit of Slack
like so
now one thing to know about this hitch
is that the most breaking strength it
has when this
Trends are parallel to each other it's
not down here like on normal billing
devices it's actually up in the case of
the repel like so
so
like so and then you can lower yourself
down
so hopefully you will never need to use
this but in case you do close your book
or pray that's also a good way to
remember you can also belay a climber
using this one thing to know about that
is that when you're switching between
giving slack and taking slack the knot
will flip upside down this is totally
normal
so it keeps flipping every time you
switch taking slack to giving Slack
that's how it should be another very
critical thing to know is that it will
twist your rope like crazy so this is
not the best knot if you want to repel a
lot a lot a lot you will have a lot a
lot a lot of tangles in your rope so in
case of emergency once again cross your
arms uncross and then pray
and before you go down don't forget to
test it before you unclip any other
protection
all right moving on to friction hitches
these are special hitches that can slide
on the Rope but when you load it it
bites and this is super useful in wide
variety applications from backuping your
bling device to rigging something where
you need to tension the Rope more or
rescuing somebody or yourself and I'm
gonna show you three most common hitches
but don't worry they're kind of similar
so I'm gonna explain the differences so
you can understand in which application
which one is better all right let's
start with the prusik the first thing I
do when I type prusik is move my Loop
to the side a little bit
then I pass the knot through itself like
so
and make it tight again
then I pass the note one more time like
so notice that I'm keeping these coils
coiling inwards towards each other like
here
and then pass a third time
like so
now at this point I want to pull on one
of these strands to offset the knot so
I'm gonna pull on this strand
while maintaining
the knot neat
and the result now to double check the
prusik you can kind of see a big smiley
with the tongue and all the coils are
nice and parallel to each other there is
nothing overlapping here
and you can clip it to yourself like so
and it should hold you
now prusik are not releasable under
tension
and when you load it hard it might be
hard to release and to help to release
you kind of want to open that mouth that
I was talking and that helps to loosen
up the prusik so prusiks are very
strong and they work in both directions
so if you're not planning to move it
much in certain rigging situations this
is great all right next one is the Klemheist
for this one I like to offset the
knot from the beginning and then take
the other end behind the Rope kind of
measure one finger here and then you
start rolling around or wrapping around
or coiling around this is much easier
than original prusik and at this point
you take the knot pass through the upper
Loop like so and pull it down
so again it's important to make it very
nice and tidy and also to make sure that
this Loop that you just passed your rope
through is not longer than entire length
of the knot
of course when you're gonna load it it's
gonna stretch and that's okay but if you
make it too long you will have way less
friction all right the Klemheist
same as the Prusik it's very strong and
not releasable under tension however
unlike the Prusik
well tight Klemheist should be easier
to release and similar to prusik when
you want to release it you want to open
this lip that you passed your tail
through that helps to loosen it up
now unlike Prusik, Klemheist is
single directional so it works best if
you pull it downwards in my case it kind
of works if you pull up as well but it's
not designed for that and it's going to
be much weaker so due to the fact that
it's a little bit easier to release
sometimes and it's holding very strong a
lot of climbers prefer this knot over
the prusik when you need to ascend the
Rope so you can move it easier up and
then load it move it up and then load it
all right and the last one is an auto- block
it starts similar to the Klemheist
I like to offset this knot a
little bit and then start wrapping
around like we already did before
and now at this point instead of putting
the knot through the loop what we did
with the Klemheist you want to take
both of these loops
and clip it with the carabiner
so once you load it it's gonna look a
little bit funky but it should grab and
auto block is commonly used as a backup
for your blade device and extended repel
situation
so since it doesn't bite that much
it's still okay because you don't need
that much force to hold the brake side
of the Rope however the ability to
release this not under tension is what
it makes it great option for repelling
so here's another demonstration auto
block although being the weakest out of
the three it still can hold my weight
however if I pull on it from top down it
will out now the great thing about this
Prusik that we can be made simply out of
the accessory cord tied into the loop
using double fisherman's knot one thing
you need to know is that your cord has
to be at least three millimeters thinner
than the Rope you're gonna be using it
on and in general the thinner the chord
is the stronger the Prusik is gonna grab
and for climbing applications the good
diameter is between five and six
millimeters now other things that affect
how strongly the prusik is gonna bite is
the amount of Loops you're gonna make so
with every Prusik you can Loop it as
many times as it's needed there is no
hard rule usually you start around three
and then you have to test it to see if
it's strong enough but not too strong so
it's great idea to test on your own
ropes because it also depends on the
stiffness of your cord and on your
slippiness of your rope and if your rope
for example is wet or Frozen it's gonna
be even slippier so you might need more
wraps
also you can tie Prusik on two ropes
for example when you're repelling the
thing you need to know is that two robes
have more surface for the Prusik to
bite and usually the pressure will bend
harder so you might need less reps so
very budget friendly and super useful
thing to have
but you can also buy already pre-made
Prusiks they are even better because
they are more friction resistant they
are softer and it's easier to tie them
however make sure to not buy too thick
one they're used for other applications
you need a thinner one for sport
climbing and in the case you get stuck
on the route and you want to escape but
you don't have a prusik well maybe you
have shoes with laces that you can make
your project out of and here I forgot to
mention one very important thing about
Prusik but you should not rely on
them fully you always have to have a
very very solid backup
all right so of course there are many
other knots but to keep your brain from
melting I'm gonna keep them for the
future episodes and for now I want to
say special thank you for Mammoth for
sponsoring this video since I put a lot
of energy into these videos to make them
as quality as possible it's great to
partner with the brand who also cares
about quality a lot so thank you mahmut
and thank you every single of you who
are supporting me by visiting my website
that helps a ton
so I can
make more of these videos
so bad in these outros
I'm gonna leave it like that