Which Rappel Knot Do You Use?

Yesterday, I went up to a new unclimbed cliff overlooking a hidden valley near Pikes Peak. It’s a big cliff, broken into four immense buttresses that are divided by three deep bays. The central face, one of my first climbing objectives, rises sharply for 250 feet above the forest. The easiest cliff access is from the top rather than the bottom so to get to the cliff base requires downclimbing dangerously loose gullies or making a couple long rappels. I chose rappels.

First I created a stout anchor with cams, nuts, and slings around big boulders on the summit, and then tied two 200-foot ropes together using my standard double figure-8 fisherman’s knot. It’s the knot I’ve always used for tying rappel ropes together. It’s stout and sturdy and most of all—I trust it. I trust my life to that knot time and time again…just like I did yesterday. I use it for rappelling off big desert towers like Moses; I use it when I rappel off the lip of North Chasm View at the Black Canyon to make photographs of climbers on The Stoned Oven; I use it when I rap off Montezuma Tower at the Garden of the Gods. It’s a great knot. I trust it.

This week’s feature story is a new article on the 4 Best Knots for Rappelling. Check it out for yourself and decide what rappel knot works for you. Your life depends on it. Safe climbing!

Photo above: The only way off The Devil’s Golfball is rappelling. What knot are you gonna tie?
Photograph © Stewart M. Green