Outward Bound Ropes, Knots, and Hitches

147 Pages·2012·37.294 MB·English

by  Buck Tilton

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Fool-proof, step-by-step guide to
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essential outdoor knots
OUTWARD BOUND
ROPES, KNOTS, AND
Knot-making is simpler than ever. This new easy-to-follow guide, published
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in partnership with Outward Bound, includes information on using knots in HITCHES
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your favorite outdoor activities. Outdoor expert Buck Tilton takes you step- T
by-step through each bend and turn with clear instructions and detailed W
photographs. You can count on this handy volume to guide you toward quick A
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success and fool-proof knots.
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Buck Tilton is a regular columnist for Backpacker magazine and is also the
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author of Knack Knots You Need, Knack Hiking & Backpacking, and Knack First
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Aid (all Globe Pequot Press). His many books for FalconGuides, including the P
award-winning Wilderness First Responder, have sold more than 100,000 E
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copies combined.
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Cover design by Linda Loiewski S
Cover photos: front top, Andy Pixel; all others licensed by Shutterstock.com
US $14.95 / Canadian $16.95
falcon.com
FalconGuides® is an imprint
of Globe Pequot Press
OB_ropes_knots_cvr.indd 1 2/13/12 10:59 AM
Outward BOund
rOpes, KnOts, and HitcHes
Buck TilTon
Guilford, connecticut
Helena, Montana
An imprint of Globe Pequot Press
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FFAALLCCOONNGGUUIIDDEESS®
Copyright © 2012 Morris Book Publishing, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing
from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press,
Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
FalconGuides is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Falcon, FalconGuides, and Outfit Your Mind are registered trademarks of Morris Book
Publishing, LLC.
Interior photos by Bob Hede
Text design: Eileen Hine
Project editor: Julie Marsh
Layout: Sue Murray
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN 978-0-7627-7861-4
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
About Outward Bound .........................................................................................v
Introduction ......................................................................................................viii
1 Of Ropes and Cordage .......................................................................................1
2 Camping Knots: Stoppers...................................................................................6
Overhand Knot ...........................................................................................6
Overhand Knot with Draw Loop ..................................................................7
Heaving Line Knot .......................................................................................8
Figure 8 Knot ............................................................................................10
Figure 8 Knot with Draw Loop ..................................................................12
3 Camping Knots: Bends .....................................................................................13
Square (Reef) Knot ....................................................................................13
Sheet Bend ...............................................................................................14
Double Sheet Bend ...................................................................................15
4 Camping Knots: Loops .....................................................................................16
Figure 8 Loop ............................................................................................16
Overhand Loop .........................................................................................18
Slipknot (Simple Noose) ............................................................................19
Hangman’s Knot (Noose) ...........................................................................20
5 Camping Knots: Stationary Hitches .................................................................22
Half Hitch .................................................................................................22
Two Half Hitches .......................................................................................23
Clove Hitch ...............................................................................................24
Clove Hitch on a Ring ...............................................................................25
Clove Hitch on a Stake ..............................................................................26
Cow Hitch (Simple) ...................................................................................27
Cow Hitch (Pedigree) ................................................................................28
Bull Hitch ..................................................................................................30
Transom Knot ...........................................................................................32
6 Camping Knots: Moving Hitches ......................................................................34
Trucker’s Hitch...........................................................................................34
Tautline Hitch ............................................................................................36
Killick Hitch ...............................................................................................38
Timber Hitch .............................................................................................39
7 Boating Knots: Stoppers ..................................................................................42
Double Overhand Knot .............................................................................42
Ashley’s Stopper Knot ...............................................................................43
8 Boating Knots: Bends .......................................................................................44
Carrick Bend .............................................................................................44
Vice Versa .................................................................................................46
Zeppelin Bend ...........................................................................................48
9 Boating Knots: Loops .......................................................................................50
Scaffold Knot ............................................................................................50
Bowline ....................................................................................................52
Bowline on a Bight ....................................................................................54
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Contents
Double Bowline ........................................................................................56
Triple Bowline ...........................................................................................58
Midshipman’s Hitch ...................................................................................60
10 Boating Knots: Hitches .....................................................................................62
Anchor (Fisherman’s) Bend ........................................................................62
Buntline Hitch ...........................................................................................64
Highwayman’s Hitch .................................................................................66
Camel Hitch ..............................................................................................68
Rolling Hitch .............................................................................................69
Pole Hitch .................................................................................................70
Pile (Post) Hitch .........................................................................................72
Constrictor Knot .......................................................................................73
Double Constrictor Knot ...........................................................................74
11 Climbing Knots: Hitches ...................................................................................78
Bachmann Hitch .......................................................................................78
Munter (Italian) Hitch ................................................................................80
Girth Hitch ................................................................................................81
Klemheist Knot .........................................................................................82
Garda Knot ...............................................................................................83
Prusik Knot ...............................................................................................84
Round Turn and Two Half Hitches .............................................................86
12 Climbing Knots: Bends .....................................................................................87
Hunter’s (Rigger’s) Bend ............................................................................87
Fisherman’s Knot .......................................................................................88
Double Fisherman’s Knot ...........................................................................90
Water Knot ...............................................................................................92
Figure 8 Bend ...........................................................................................94
13 Climbing Knots: Loops .....................................................................................96
Figure 8 Follow-Through ...........................................................................96
Figure 8 Double Loop ................................................................................98
Figure 8 Triple Loop .................................................................................100
Loop Knot ...............................................................................................102
Alpine Butterfly .......................................................................................103
Spanish Bowline ......................................................................................106
Interlocking Loops ...................................................................................109
14 Miscellaneous Knots ......................................................................................112
Sheepshank ............................................................................................112
Eye Splice ................................................................................................113
Back Splice ..............................................................................................114
Common Whipping ................................................................................116
Asher’s Bottle Sling .................................................................................118
Knife Lanyard Knot .................................................................................120
Monkey’s Fist ..........................................................................................122
Simple Chain Sinnet (Monkey Chain) ......................................................124
Index ......................................................................................................................127
About the Author ............................................................................................130
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About outwArd bound
Outward Bound, America’s preeminent experiential education organization, has
been a pioneer in the field of wilderness experiential learning since it was established
in the United States in 1961 and has continued to deliver unparalleled outdoor
educational programs ever since. Today, Outward Bound provides adventure and
learning for teens, adults, veterans, at-risk youth, and professionals, helping them
achieve their full potential and inspiring them to serve others.
A Brief History
Outward Bound is based on the educational ideas of Kurt Hahn, an influential
German-born educator. Hahn established the School at Schloss Salem in an
attempt to combat what he perceived as the deterioration of values in post–
World War I Germany. Salem’s progressive curriculum focused on character
development through physical fitness, skill attainment, self-discipline, and
compassionate service. In 1933, thirteen years after establishing Salem,
Hahn fled Nazi-ruled Germany to Britain. Soon after his arrival, he set about
establishing the Gordonstoun School in Scotland to continue his work under
the motto “Plus est en vous” (“There is more in you than you know”).
In 1941, in a joint effort with British shipping magnate Sir Lawrence Holt,
Hahn founded the first Outward Bound Sea School in Aberdovey, Wales. The
name of the school was adopted from the nautical term used when ships leave
the safety of the harbor for the open seas: They were said to be “outward bound”
for unknown challenges and adventures. The school not only taught sailing skills
but also integrated Hahn’s core belief that character development was just as
important as academic achievement. Hahn’s goal was to teach self-reliance,
fitness, craftsmanship, and compassion as a way to provide the youth of Great
Britain with the benefits of life experience and prepare them to serve their nation
in the struggle against Nazi Germany. The program revolved around a series of
increasingly rugged challenges designed to develop the self-confidence, fortitude,
and leadership skills required to survive harsh physical and mental challenges.
Josh Miner, an American who taught under Hahn at Gordonstoun, was
inspired to bring Outward Bound to the United States. Working with a small
group of committed supporters, Miner founded the Colorado Outward Bound
School in 1961, bringing the principles of hands-on learning and compassionate
service through outdoor adventure to America.
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About Outward Bound
Outward Bound Today
Today Outward Bound has expanded to thirty-six countries throughout the world.
In the United States the organization has close to one million alumni who stay
connected and engaged through Outward Bound’s alumni association (www
.outwardboundalumni.org). Central to its mission is a valuing of inclusion and
diversity, which is evidenced by its scholarship program designed to attract and
benefit populations that are typically underserved. Approximately 25 percent
of participants receive financial support, and they span ethnic, socioeconomic,
and geographic diversity.
In the United States, to advance goals of transforming lives and developing
compassionate, purposed people, Outward Bound now offers its unique blend
of adventure-based programs fitted to the needs of:
• Teens and young adults
• At-risk youth
• Adults
• Veterans
• Professionals
Although programs vary broadly in target population, location, and
objective, they all contain the elements that Kurt Hahn espoused as central
to the development of effective and compassionate citizens: adventure and
challenge; learning through experience; integrity and excellence; inclusion
and diversity; social and environmental responsibility; leadership and character
development; and compassion and service. For participants in any of the varied
programs, in any part of the world, these core values provide the foundation
for their Outward Bound experience.
THe InsTrucTOrs
Outward Bound instructors are highly trained, qualified educators and outdoor
skills specialists. Participant safety is the highest priority—foundational to every
program. Every course is accompanied by instructors who hold wilderness
first-responder-level certifications at the minimum and have received hundreds
of hours of educational, safety, student and activity management training.
Staff are proficient in—and passionate about—the specific wilderness skills
of the activity they teach, whether rock climbing, sailing, mountaineering,
sea kayaking, canoeing, or whitewater rafting. To help participants along
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About Outward Bound
their personal growth paths, instructors are trained in managing groups and
individuals. A vital component of every course is the instructors’ ability to not
only shepherd participants through individual course challenges but also to
help them work as effective leaders and contributing members of the team.
Outward Bound’s Lasting Impact
The impact of each expedition extends well beyond the course itself. This
impact is different for each individual but can be seen in a variety of ways,
including: improved school performance, closer relationships with family and
friends, and a new commitment to service. When Outward Bound participants
return home, they bring with them a new sense of responsibility, an enhanced
appreciation of the environment, and a strong service ethic that they share with
friends and family. Most importantly, they bring a newfound belief that “there
is more in you than you know” and an inspiration to act on that knowledge.
In one participant’s words, “What I was lacking I have found; now I have the
tools to keep growing and to work hard to accomplish my dreams and to do
anything I can to help others accomplish their dreams as well.”
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IntroduCtIon
Looking back now over thousands of miles of trail and river, over hundreds of
campsites, over the teaching I’ve done on Outward Bound courses from Maine
to Florida, the list of skills offered by instructors to students seems endless:
paddling a canoe, hoisting a sail, packing a pack, reading a map, treating a
blister, picking a tent site, firing up a stove, cooking dinner—to name just a
few. If, however, one skill stands out as universally useful, a skill you might use
in any situation, in any environment, on any trip, it is the tying of knots.
Knots hold the outdoor world together. Properly tied, they prevent the boat
from drifting away, the tent from lifting off in a high wind, and the bear from
reaching the food bag. The right knot turns a length of rope into a clothesline,
an anchor line, or a zip line. A good knot holds the sailing ship on course and
the canoe to the top of the vehicle. A matter of life and death, the climber is
secured to the rope and from falling off the end of the rope by knots.
To tie a knot is to add your name to a rich history. Long before mallet and
peg, hammer and nail, glue, duct tape, or Velcro, there was cordage—and the
knots that made it useful. Beside the unknown inventor of the wheel and the
forgotten discoverer of fire making, I rank equally as a genius the man or woman
who figured out how to entangle the ends of vines and plants’ fibers in ways that
would keep them from untangling. The tying of the first knot may have occurred
more than 100,000 years ago. How else were prehistoric stone ax heads attached
to prehistoric ax handles? No evidence, however, remains. But off the coast of
Denmark, a fishhook was found still tied to a line (a length of sinew or gut) with
what we know today as a clove hitch (see page 24). This hook-and-line was
estimated at more than 10,000 years old. Part of a knotted fishing net retrieved
from a bog in Finland has been dated circa 7200 BCE. During the zeniths of their
civilizations, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans tied complex knots for diverse
jobs—and left wonders that remain thousands of years later.
From the icebound polar regions to the ever-warm equatorial regions, all
cultures in all times have knotted cords. Over the centuries knots have been
used by builders, surveyors, soldiers, and sorcerers. The butcher, the miller, the
cobbler, the farmer, the weaver, the housewife—they all needed a knot or two,
or three. Knots were used for communication, for record keeping, in religious
rites, and for corporal punishment.
It was at sea, though, under sail, that the science and art of knot tying
reached its greatest extent. As the scope and practice of ships at sea expanded,
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Introduction
so did the knots—in both form and function—which made seagoing ventures
possible. Outward Bound, loaded with nautical tradition, carries on the history of
the sea and the knot in sailing trips. (Still, it should be remembered, as Geoffrey
Budworth writes in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Knots: “For every knot tied
aboard ship throughout the last millennium, another was tied ashore.”)
An exhaustive compendium of knots would be a weighty tome indeed,
including today more than 4,000 recognized ways of acceptably entrapping
cordage. And that number does not include the variations possible with many
knots. This book, of course, in no way pretends to be “complete” in the
exhaustive sense. It does include seventy-three knots—more than enough to
get every camping, climbing, and boating job done, whether on an Outward
Bound course or off. Do you need to know them all? If not, which knots should
you know?
Knots You need
The International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT), founded in the United Kingdom in
1982, published in June of 1999 from their Surrey branch a list of six knots they
think should be known first for use with modern rope. These are the figure 8
knot (see page 10), sheet bend (see page 14), bowline (see page 52), rolling
hitch (see page 69), constrictor knot (see page 73), and the round turn and
two half hitches (see page 86). They further suggested the figure 8 might be
the best overall knot since it can be modified to serve as a stopper, bend, loop,
or hitch (see Knot Terminology, page x). The “Surrey Six,” however, despite its
thoughtful creation, may not meet all of your knot needs.
You will need to explore knots, and tie lots, and choose the one or two
(or more) that consistently meet the demands you place on them. But you are
limited only by your willingness to learn. There are many knots fit to be tied.
Today’s knots are most often tied by campers, boaters/sailors, and climbers.
This book is divided into those three categories. But knots themselves do
not divide neatly. The overhand knot, for example, falls easily into all three
categories, as does the double overhand and the half hitch. The bowline, too,
is useful in camping, climbing, and boating. The fisherman’s knot is used by
campers and climbers (as well as fishermen), and the sheet bend and double
sheet bend could be useful in almost any situation. And it’s always fun to tie a
monkey’s fist even if you don’t need one.
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