The first knot most climbers learn is the “Retraced Figure Eight” knot. While a minority of climbers choose to connect the rope to their harness with a double bowline knot most of the climbing guides and instructors I have met greatly prefer to the more easily recognizable Figure Eight. Since there are a few ways to create a retraced Figure of Eight there is only one way that is becoming more known as “ideal”. When all these points are met I refer to this as the “Optimized” Figure Eight Knot.

• Only the amount of rope needed to create the knot is used
• The loop that has captured the harness tie-in point is no larger then the belay loop
• All the strands are parallel with no cross overs
• After all four strands exiting the knot are “dressed & stressed” there is only 6 inches of tail
• The load strand entering the knot ends up on the “inside” of the knot
• Your partner checks your knot before you start climbing

In this video I demonstrate the methods I use to tie this correctly each time.

There is a really in-depth look at this by “Hard is Easy” on YouTube here, though I use a mirror image of his method to achieve the same result. There are also some great pictures showing some of the nuances over at Alpine Savvy.

Do you tie your eight like this? Any questions or comments? Please let me know below!

See you in the mountains,

Northeast Alpine Start

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