How to Tie a Rope to a Climbing Harness

By Naomi Judd

Naomi Judd

Tying a rope into a climbing harness is one of the most basic techniques you'll need to learn for climbing. The rewoven Figure Eight, the universal knot used for tying into a seat harness, can also be used to connect a rope to an anchor. You need to know how to tie this knot cleanly and be able to recognize whether a climbing partner has tied it incorrectly, for your safety and his.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step 1

Loose Figure Eight

Flake out your rope and pick up one end of it to use for the knot and tie a loose Figure Eight with at least 2 feet of extra tail. You will be using this to feed it back through the Figure Eight.

Step 2

Wrap the tail through the rope tie-in of your harness.

Step 3

Take the end of the tail and feed it back through, following the Figure Eight.

Step 4

Tighten the rewoven Figure Eight. Make sure that it was followed through neatly without any twists in the rope.

Step 5

Tie an overhand knot with the extra tail if you have leftover rope. This gets it out of the way and acts as a small backup knot.

Step 6

Practice this knot until you can tie it automatically. It's one of the knots you'll use most throughout your climbing life.

Resources

About The Author

Naomi Judd, CIG, has been a writer for six years and been published in Tidal Echoes, Centripetal, The Capital City Weekly and Northwest.com. She has a self-designed Bachelor of Arts degree in adventure writing from Plymouth State University and is currently earning an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Eastern Washington University.

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