Learn to Tie a Prusik Knot for Top Rope Climbing

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. We are here today at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the trustees of the reservation’s property. In this series we are going to be talking about anchors for top rope rock climbing. Another useful climbing knot is a prussic knot. There are a number of variations but I’ll show you the basic and you can pick up the others somewhere else. A prusik knot is a knot that holds onto the rope by virtue of creating a lot of friction around unexciting rope. So what’s it good for? You can use it as an anchor point to put yourself into. You can use two of them to climb up a rope if you need to anytime you need to hold onto the middle of the rope without tying a knot in it; prusik is a great way to go. So the finished one looks like that. Here’s how you tie it. You need a loop or smaller cord, prusik loop, it is going to be tied off and you want to start off with that knot out of the way so back towards this end. You are going to form the knot around the existing rope by wrapping it a few times; 3 or 4 will do in most cases. Neatness counts because if it is all jumbled up and it won’t get a good grip on your rope. Now you have it. Give a test pull and now you are all set. So it will cinch up as you pull on it. If you need to release it, push up on it, loosen it up and it will move for you; that’s a prusik. "