The stopper knot.
More from the St. George chronicles…
As I was absorbed in leading the second pitch of a route this past weekend, my belayer was witnessing an entirely different epic. A group of climbers had arrived at the crag. One of them seemed to know what he was doing, but the three or four others didn’t. The competent climber led off up a route and eventually lowered down. Well, the pitch was evidently longer than half a rope length because as the climber was cleaning his draws, the rope slipped through the belay device!
By some amazing stroke of luck, the climber was standing on a small ledge when this happened, and he didn’t fall! He did have to make a sketchy down-solo, though! Moral of the story? Tie a knot in the end of the rope! This story could have had a not quite so happy ending. The belayer AND the climber should each check to make sure there’s a knot in the end.
The most common knot is the stopper knot (click here for step by step instructions), but any solid knot will do, really. If you use a rope bag/tarp that has tie-in loops for each end of the rope, make sure the knot on the bottom end is solid enough that it doesn’t come undone!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t understand people who don’t knot the end of the rope. It’s such a common cause for accidents that lead to broken bones or death. Just do it!
I second that. This is one of those super simple, yet super effective things you can do to prevent an accident.