Things You'll Need:
- Rock climbing rope
- Harness
- Rock climbing gym
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Step 1
Take a full arm’s length of rope, holding the end of the rope palm facing up in the right hand and the other part of the rope in your left hand, palm down, pinching it between your fingers.
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Step 2
Twist the rope in your left hand twice (as if you are twisting a wired twisty tie), and use your right hand to put the end of the rope through the loop you have made by twisting the rope with your left hand. Let the new knot fall. Look at it carefully. It should look like an eight.
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Step 3
Thread the knot up through the leg loops and waist belt of your harness until the knot is a couple inches from your leg loops. Hold the figure eight knot in your left hand and start to retrace the knot with the end of the rope. When retracing the knot, you should start threading the end of the rope through the bottom of the knot. When you hold the knot in your left hand such that it is not twisted, the end that is closest to the harness is where you start threading. As you retrace the knot, you will be creating a visual “train track.” After you retrace the entire knot, the end (or “tail”) of the rope should be sticking out and away from you and your knot six to eight inches.
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Step 4
Dress your knot by tightening it.
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Step 5
At this point you tie a safety knot at the end of your retraced figure eight knot. To tie the safety knot, place the loose tail of the rope parallel with the piece of rope it is next to. Cross the loose tail over the other rope and wrap it around twice. Create an “X” as you do this by wrapping the rope once away from your figure eight knot and once toward it. Then thread the tail end through the “X” that you have created, hold the safety knot as closely to the figure eight as possible, and cinch the knot tight.
