Been climbing for 8 years and just realized I was tying my Blake's hitch wrong the whole time

I was at a job in Portland last Tuesday and another climber came over to look at my lanyard. He pointed out my cord was wrapping the wrong direction around the rope, been doing it since my first day. I guess I never watched close enough when I learned and just copied the motion. Anyone else ever figure out they were doing a basic knot wrong for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

leo60327d ago

@rodriguez.cora I went through the same thing with my figure eight. Two years in, some rope tech pointed out I was dressing it backwards. Felt dumb for a minute, but then I made myself tie every knot slow from memory every night for a week. That fixed it. Now I check by feel, not by looks. You are not alone, plenty of us are out there rocking the wrong pattern without knowing.

christophermorgan27d ago

Dressing a knot backwards still holds the same load. The rope bites into itself the same way, the forces run the same path, and it's not like the universe cares how pretty the swirls look. People get obsessed with what they can see and forget that a knot is just a system of friction, not a piece of art. If it holds when you tug it, it holds. Period. All this stuff about "checking by feel" is just rope snobs making themselves feel superior. You probably tied it fine for two years, and nothing fell apart, so what's the actual problem? The only real mistake is letting someone convince you that you were doing it wrong when your gear never let you down.

rodriguez.cora1mo ago

Kinda makes you wonder how many other knots people are messing up without knowing it.