People are bad at lots of things. Safety included. Priorities get crooked, and mostly folks just plain aren't educated in how to stay alive. Climbing is a shining example of the "safety third" mentality. The moral of the story is to get out there and find someone who can tell you how to do it all without getting hurt hurt or dying. Also, even if you've done it a thousand times, be careful. A fraction of a second of distraction is all too often fatal. Look at the big picture, and listen to your gut. If it looks icky, it's wrong.

Feed the fire! Photos, comments, questions, or ponderings? Fire 'em off to janketyassanchors@gmail.com

Some photos are too small to show proper detail. Click to zoom.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Weird place to tie a knot



Here's a picture of my favorite way to tie the two end of a cordelette together, fondly known as the European-Death-Knot, or the EDK.  It stays put, does it's job, and comes untied when you want it to (unlike the double-fisherman's knot), assuming that three simple rules are followed.

1) The knot needs a minimum of hand length's (not width) worth of tail.
2) The knot needs to be well tightened.  I tighten each strand individually no less than twice, every single time that I tie it.
3) The knot cannot be loaded over anything.  Nope, even that carabiner.


1 comment:

  1. A very secure, strong, easy to tie, easy to adjust for length once tied, non-jamming (removable) knot for this application is the rosendahl bend (also known as zeppelin bend or b-q knot). You could also tie an alpine butterfly bend, but the symmetric nature of the b-q makes it easy to see when it is tied correctly. Good knot for v-threads in cord too. The b-q knot is much stronger than a flat overhand (EDK) and just as easy to tie with gloves on.

    ReplyDelete