Tying a Figure 8 Knot when Rock Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Bill with Zoar Outdoor on behalf of expertvillage.com. We're here today at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Trustees of the Reservations Property and in this series I'm going to be talking about preparing to climb. So here we are about ready to climb, we need to attach our rope to our harness so we can be belayed on our way up. The knot that we use to do that is called a figure 8 follow through. There are other ways to do it, but that's the traditional climber method. There's lots of ways to tie that knot, I'm going to show you one that works well, you'll see others. As long as it comes out right in the end you're okay. I'm going to start with arm length of rope, hold a bend in the rope in front of you, cavalierly toss the end over other side, reach underneath and grab the end again, put it back down through the length you created, pull the slack out here. Here's your first 8, that's the figure 8. Now the follow through, first put it through your harness, now you don't put it through the belay loop. That's for belaying, that's what the manufacturer says, put it through where the belay loop goes. Top to bottom, bottom to top, doesn't really matter. Pull the knot close to you and feed the end through the knot until the whole thing is doubled. You want to have 8, 10, 12 inches of tail hanging out here, more gets in the way, less risk feeding it back into the knot and compromising your knot. You want to look at it when you're done. If it's neat, it's easier to see that it's correct. You can look for 5 pairs, I like 5 because you have that many fingers, 5 pairs 2 3 4 5 and you know that you tied the right knot. Check yours, check your friends, keep checking your knot throughout the day. Once you start tying in don't stop until you're done, half tied knot doesn't work, nice neat knot, figure 8 follow through you're ready to climb."