Page 30 - Duane Raleigh - Knots Ropes for Climbers

Double Bowline. For many years, I counted myself among them and wouldn't touch the

Double Bowline.

Then a good friend, Jack Mileski, showed me a clever way to tuck the tail back out the hole and rest it
against the tree. His extra step keeps pressure on the tail, locking it. Add a Double Grapevine to the
end as a final safety, and you have a knot you can trust. What's more, the knot is still easy to untie,
even after it's held a heavy person.

Like the Figure Eight Follow-Through, you can use the Double Bowline to anchor the

rope around a tree or boulder. Since, however, this practice often requires that you tie the knot from
an unusual perspective (below or underneath the knot, for example), I have a hard time endorsing it.
Before you use the Double Bowline, make sure you are expert in its use and able to recognize when
it's tied incorrectly. Tie the Bowline wrong (a common mistake is to put the rabbit in the hole first,
instead of having it come out of the hole), and it can still appear correct to a cloudy mind but fall
apart as soon as it's weighted.

Common Use s

Joining rope to harness

Tying rope around trees, boulders, and so on