Hey Tribe.  Do you think you can get through a tangle during your outdoor pursuits without knowing your way with the Working End of a rope?  I’m a frayed knot, folks…  Surely, without knots, all we have is the Bitter End!  As Grog would say, “Better to know a knot and not need it, than need a knot and not know it.”

I’ve been meaning to feature useful knots, hitches, and bends here on the Journal for a while now.  Well, our favorite Welshman’s bound up a perfect starting point with a truly classic knot (technically a “sliding or friction hitch”), and he has fastened down the loose ends of its creation.  Check out the Prusik Knot!  For you knot-nerds, it’s described by Ashley, in his Book of Knots, as #1763.  Stay Tight.  -JW  [Knot Pun count:  7-ish]

By Graham ‘Sven’ Hassall

There are some truly ground breaking first ascent stories: Everest ’53, Heckmair and party’s ’38 epic on the north face of the Eiger and closer to home, Johnny Dawes’ infamous Indian Face to name but a few. None however has been as impactful to the world of climbing (not to mention rope access, caving and tree surgery) as when Karl Prusik first ascended a rope with his revolutionary new knot some 85 years ago. Continue reading A New Knot and its Application (or What’s in a Name?) →