How about... When was your "Most Fun" with knots?

[Mr_Sheesh]

I was reminded of one time on another forum, so I thought, why not ask people what their most fun situation with knots was? Odd humor's allowed, unique is good, weird gets extra points? LOL

I'm fairly good with knots; Boy Scouts and then I did a lot of rigging for our SAR folks as we trained cadets i.e. kids; I'd be the first one down ropes fairly often, but when some kids "go the wrong way", kick the footing out from under themselves AND break off the handhold they'd planned to use above themselves... And the rock they were climbing to, turns out, was rocking in the wind, too, it's just plain SIGH time. People new to climbing, LISTEN to your instructors, OK? And don't climb stupid in the Olympics with all those nice fragile shale rocks LOL

I think my most fun time was when I ended up needing to tie a bowline, one-handed, left-handed {I'm right-handed}, in the end of a rope, behind my back, once, to tie it into my rappelling harness, as I'd reached a place where I needed to be belayed so I had both hands free - and I was 2/3 of the way down the cliff, still 40 feet or so to go; I'd gone over the side without a belay line, as I knew what I was doing & THOUGHT I didn't NEED one - and rarely WANTED one, LOL - Until I got down there. and saw the mess they'd made of the rope... My Right hand was sorta busy locking me in place, and the guy throwing the belay line down to me had all the accuracy of Mr. Magoo, or it seemed that way to me at the time anyways, LOL. Got myself locked into place so I could untangle the birdsnest they'd made of the rope, fixed things, was done; It was really nice to have both hands free LOL

(Moral of the story is, make sure when throwing a rope over a cliff that you lay it out so it will deploy well, and take 10 extra feet or so of the end, coil it in your "off" hand, and right after you throw the 10 feet (coiled) over with your "on" hand, toss the extra 10 feet over, the rope should play out nice and clean and you won't have a problem. And, if someone else throws it and messes it up - let THEM fix it, i.e. don't volunteer LOL)

[TacAir]

When rapping it is always a good idea to

Tie a large knot in the end of the rope - seriously - I know of two situations where someone died after running out of rope before running out of altitude.

Always rig a prusik knot on a loop - attached your harness/seat in case you need to stop while on the rope. If not a prusik, a cam or Gibbs ascender will do as well. I always had the means at hand to climb back up unassisted before I hooked up to descend


Then again, I learned climbing techniques / rope safety / rock work from a gang of crazy cavers.
Back issues of Nylon Highway can be fond online at www.caves.org.


The most fun I've had with knots is teaching knots at a all-girls camp in the summer where I work.

[jackal556]

I know I have some stories but the only one that comes to mind right now is this. In 1997, I was training at Camp Pendleton and wound up attached to Force Recon (yes, the real Force Recon). I brought along one of our older "cut-vees" (M-998 humvee with the flatbed/ 8 person bench seats). The bolts and nuts had fallen out of various places, especially the bench seats and sides. We wound up using 550 cord to "re-attach" things.

Another knots and 550 cord/ military story, involved my unit arriving at a campsite in a light rain at night. Again, 550 cord saved the day as we were able to tie our squad's ponchos together, tie them off to trees, and make a massive shelter. Once morning came, it was impressive to see what we did during the night.

[KentsOkay]

I could tell you about all the fun I've had with others and knots, but that would break forum rules about porn.

[Mr_Sheesh]

TacAir - Definitely the knot on the end's a VERY wise idea; I'd been over that cliff about 200 times before, it was our "usual suspect" for beginning rappelling (We were running something sort of like a precursor to "outward bound" if I remember the name right, only different - We all knew it's exact height back then to about the foot, the problem was that "Gormer" (Let's call him that LOL) had tossed the birds-nest down the cliff (basically he undid a figure 8-ed rope - leaving the standing end inside the end loops, and tossed it, so I ended up having to un-knot the last 40 feet or so, it being in a big horrid knot, while hanging on to my rope with my right hand, on the side of a vertical shale cliff face, oh, 30-35 feet off the ground or so, with rope stretch we ended up with JUST enough rope left over to be able to land on the ground flat as the rope's end got to our hand - We tried not to do that, LOL. I didn't mention the occasional 30 pound shale chunk that would work it's way loose somewhere on the cliff, etc., you know that happens though, sometimes the dang things would shatter on the way down and you'd get a shotgun blast effect - Great fun! LOL

Anyways - I'd gone over the side ASSUMING that the darn thing had caught on an inconvenient bush or something, shows ME how unwise assuming is, sigh.

And KentsOkay - LOL! Ya, I wasn't suggesting we go there in public. I know how people think though LOL

Not really knots per se, nor fun really, but, I used to have a backup self-defense method where I'd use a short length of rope and could toss a bight around someone's arm, then use leverage and their own motion to throw them / mess them up - Never had to use that for real, sorta a thing I cooked up on my own as a kid.

[RickOShea]

I'd say practicing pole top rescues at the power company. None of the "fancy" knots we were taught in apprentice school, just a simple square knot under the arms and around the chest of the hurt man.

You just gotta figure out which way you're gonna wrap the lead line first: around the cross arm (if there is one), thru the transformer hangers (if there is one)......aw hell, just hammer your screw driver into the pole, it'll hold it.

[RoneKiln]

I had a newer friend (that is now one of my best) that always wanted to go rock climbing. So I took him out to a face I knew real well and felt comfortable taking beginners to. He was incredibly excited and had picked up a book on climbing knots and a short bit of both rope and sling to practice on. He memorized every thing in that book the day before. On the way out he kept talking about knots and everything to do with them. Over half of it was terminology I'd never even heard. So we hike up above the face and started setting up our safety gear for top roping and showing him what to do with some of those knots he taught himself. Half-way to getting it all set up I hesitate and say:

"Wait a minute, does the rabbit go around the tree and then down the hole, or out the hole and then around the tree?"

The look of panic on his face was picture worthy. I laughed for maybe half an hour. He's now a wilderness first responder, helped open what was at the time the largest indoor climbing wall in North America (not tallest, overall largest), and is one of the most skilled and hard core climbers I've ever known. He still tells the story to all his students about how his most terrifying moment ever climbing was not actually on the rock face, but thinking for a moment that the guy he was about to trust to belay him had no clue what he was doing.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Oooh, RoneKiln, yer mean LOL

I liked the joke from a certain Climbing Ropework book - Guy had a climbing partner who was *ahem* a little TOO bold, if ya get my meaning? So he threatened to start carrying a Belaying Knife, was the gist of the joke. You could have done that, and offered to let your student lead LOL

RickOShea - That seems a workable Field Expedient, I guess LOL

Not directly Knots related but close - When I was in the Search & Rescue Group, our show team did a trip around a few local states, showing our equipment & training off. At one place, we set up a winch problem (we had an old Willys Jeep with 3 winches on it - could hoist someone from the bottom of an 800' wide, 800' deep canyon, basically - Skyline, Haulback, and too long ago to remember what we called the other line, LOL - Anyways, "Gormer" (same guy from another post LOL) was up one old Telephone Pole there with Pole Climbers & Climbing Belt etc., he'd set a choker up there, as we tightened up the cable to the other pole he'd rigged a short time before - The other pole promptly fell over, apparently it was "a little" rotten.

"Gormer" proceeded to dismount off that pole in under 2 seconds, I think he beat free-fall on his way down that thing, we harassed him for some time about that - Understandable, but still

We elected to run a different problem with the winch Jeep, since the chances were that the other Phone Pole was rotten too.

[majorhavoc]

Just realized I could contribute to this thread. Went camping with some friends over Memorial Day weekend. Two of them are single mothers and I played surrogate dad to four children ages 4 - 9 for the long weekend. Brought 100 feet of brightly colored paracord, some little LED flashlights and 1/2" side release buckles. We made paracord "Zombie-apocalypse" bracelets during some of the very few down times we had. Also brought Cabelas mini multitools for each of the kids (except the 4 year old, who got a little stuffed animal) glow bracelets and sparklers.

The eldest girl informed me that what I call the cobra hitch is actually a macrame knot. They also all wanted paracord necklaces for their mini flashlights. That gave me a chance to teach them the Fisherman's knot to make the necklaces adjustable.

Suitably equipped, we had numerous elaborate adventures scrambling over the craggy coastline that made up a very picturesque seaside campground here in Maine. At one point we found a 20 foot section of floating dock that had somehow gotten loose and drifted within wading range of a rocky point. We "captured" said dock section with more paracord, presenting an opportunity to demonstrate the clover hitch and more knots. For the rest of the weekend it was our pirate ship/zombie survivor outpost/picnic spot. The kids wanted to sleep on it, but as a former dad myself, I put the kabosh on that idea.

I got home that Memorial day evening sunburned, sore and covered with scrapes and bruises. It was a grand time.

[Dawgboy]

Should I tell you about my new girlfriend? she likes ropes a lot... I got some real nice Japanese rope just for her.

[RickOShea]

RickOShea - That seems a workable Field Expedient, I guess LOL

Yeah, the young grunts don't believe you when you tell them that you can lower that 200lb rescue dummy down the pole, one-handed, with the rope wrapped once around the pole.

[wee drop o' bush]

I loved doing my Girl Guides Campers Badge, I had to do (amongst others) a Square Knot, Bowline and a Clove Hitch.
I use various knots when outside working on my farm & need to put things together quickly.

[RickOShea]

I loved doing my Girl Guides Campers Badge, I had to do (amongst others) a Square Knot, Bowline and a Clove Hitch.
I use various knots when outside working on my farm & need to put things together quickly.

I can't remember half the ones we had to learn. Bowline, running bowline, double bowline, three ring bowline, bowline-on-a-bight, timber hitch, some sort of "double sheet bend" thingie we use to tie two ropes together that are a different size.....

[wee drop o' bush]

I can't remember half of the knots either Rick, just the simplest ones

[Mr_Sheesh]

I don't remember them all either, Double Carrick Bend (for tying two ropes together - I used it for a while to tie my keychain rope together LOL - Strongest knot for the purpose, on knot machines, last I heard); bowline & bowline on a bight, the "usual suspects", thing is - if you know what NOT to do, you can make good strong knots, otherwise you make knots that fall apart, sometimes.

I need to re-learn diamond hitching for making a pack fairly soon, that one's HANDY.

[RickOShea]

The young guys at work seem to prefer a "hammer knot".

The Crew Chiefs are always telling them, "If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot"......and what you end up with is a jumbled-up mess that you have to beat with a hammer to get it to loosen it up.

[emtmark]

I'll bight (Hee Hee), as somebody who has asked for and received books on knot tying and rigging I thought I knew them all. I really did, I would and still do spend hours on the rug passing time tying new knots. Had an old timer and prolific tyer with me and proceeded to challenge ( in a friendly way) him in a game of "know your knots". After he was done rubbing his face which was red from where I had slapped him with my glove he accepted. Turks head to man-o-war we went knot for knot then it happened. "Tie me a Dragon Bowline" said he. Shit said I, after wracking my brain, beseeching Oprah/Tom Cruise for spiritual guidance, waving the rope in esoteric patterns while muttering incantations I gave up. "I have no idea" I conceded. Three seconds later I was watching a standard outside bowline being "dragged" across the ground. Dumbfounded and humbled I caught the rope as it was thrown to me. "Get inside for dinner your mother is waiting" he said. "Ok Dad, but next time I'll know that one", and inside we went.