The clove hitch is an important climbing knot, one of six essential climbing knots that every climber should know how to tie and use. The clove hitch is a quick and simple knot that is usually used to tie a climber into a belay anchor on a ledge with the climbing rope.
Advantages of Clove Hitch
The clove hitch has two advantages over other knots used to tie into anchors:
- The clove hitch is easy to tie and untie, even after being weighted.
- The clove hitch is easy to adjust so that you can either lengthen or shorten your tie-in point to the anchor without untying or unclipping the knot from carabiners on the anchor.
Problems with the Clove Hitch
The clove hitch, however, does have some problems. These include:
- The clove hitch is not as strong as a figure-8-on-a-bight knot or a self-equalizing figure-8 knot for tying into anchors.
- The clove hitch loses strength if it’s not tightened down after being tied.
- The clove hitch can slip when it’s loaded with either the weight of the belayer or a climber below, especially if it is not tightened.
- The clove hitch can slip if it’s tied with a stiff, wet, or frozen rope.
- If the clove hitch slips, the rope’s sheath can be abraded and damaged.
Solving Clove Hitch Problems
These problems with the clove hitch are usually averted by immediately cinching and tightening the knot after it is tied and before the knot is loaded with weight. This keeps the knot from slipping or climbing onto the side of the carabiner that it’s attached to. Always tie a clove hitch on a locking carabiner to avoid the risk of an unloaded carabiner opening under a load, like a fall, and the knot coming undone if the rope pops out of the carabiner.
Tie Clove Hitch by Carabiner Spine
Tie a clove hitch by having the load-carrying strand of rope, which is the strand going to a climber rather than to a belayer, by the spine of the carabiner. The carabiner’s spine is the rigid part of the biner opposite the gate. This is the strongest part of a carabiner. If the load-strand is in the middle of the carabiner, you risk carabiner failure when the knot and biner are heavily loaded.
