How to Tie a Prusik Knot

Video Transcript

"Okay, the first knot I'm going to show you how to do without your sling is the prusik knot. Just like before, you set it up like this, to where the knot is off the side. To start making this knot you start with kind of like a larks head like on the earlier knots we did, and pass it through this way, and this is a larks head knot. But to make the prusik knot, you’re going to continue that idea and keep passing through, this will help the knot to restrict around the rope and prevent it from slipping if there's no pressure applied around the knot. Three is a good number to do, you can do four; you don't want to get too ridiculous with this, with as many times as you wrap around, but be sure to test it out before you put weight on it, when you need it to work. So just like the other knots, you want to make sure it's not twisted, sometimes this is a little tricky to get that way to. If you use this for belaying you would have it attached, your rope attached to your harness and coming through this way, and this would be on top, also attached to your harness. And as you fed the rope through, you could pull this down. But if you don't have your hand wrapped around it, you can pull it in either direction. This knot is also useful in ascending a rope, and I'll show you that a little bit later."