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There are many types of knots that are commonly used in the pursuit of rock climbing, ice climbing, and general mountaineering, the most popular of which are listed below.
| Bends | |
|---|---|
 | Beer knot: The Beer knot is often used in tubular webbing, usually for making slings. |
 | Double fisherman knot (also known as Grapevine): The Grapevine knot is useful to tie together two ends of ropes. Ropes can be of unequal sizes. It is often used to tie both ends of the same rope together to form a circle. |
 | Triple fisherman's knot |
 | Overhand bend (also known as European death knot, Euro death knot, EDK): The Overhand bend is a simple and fast way to join two ropes, notably for rappelling. Can be very useful in situations where speed is critical to safety. It is similar to a water knot, but both bitter ends come out the same side of the knot. |
 | Water knot (also known as Tape Knot, Double Overhand Bend, Ring Bend): The Water knot is useful to tie together two ends of ropes. Often used with webbing. |
| Binding | |
 | Strangle knot: The Strangle knot is a simple binding knot. It forms both sides of a Double fisherman's knot, and is also used to back up loop knots and both ends of bends. |
| Hitches | |
 | Bachmann knot: The Bachmann knot is useful when the friction hitch needs to be reset quickly/often or made to be self-tending as in crevasse and self-rescue. |
 | Clove hitch: The Clove hitch is used in belay systems among other things. |
 | Italian hitch (also known as Munter hitch, HMS): The Italian hitch is a simple knot, used by climbers and cavers as part of a life-lining or belay system. Its main use is as a friction device for controlling the rate of descent in belay systems. |
 | Klemheist knot: The Klemheist knot is an alternative to the Prusik knot, useful when the climber is short of cord but has plenty of webbing. |
 | Prusik: The Prusik is a knot used mainly for emergency use. Some carry between one and three cords specifically for prusiks. One can be used to quickly secure a person's position to correct problems with equipment; two can be used as a method of ascending a rope. |
 | Blake's hitch: Blake's hitch is widely used in tree climbing applications. The knot can be slid up and down a line manually, but when loaded, it sticks securely. |
 | Girth hitch: This hitch is commonly used to attach loops of runner to harnesses, bags, other kinds of equipment, and to natural features like rock knobs or brush/tree trunks for protection. |
| Loop Knots | |
 | Alpine butterfly knot: The Alpine Butterfly is a strong and secure loop knot. Allows load distribution in multiple directions. It can also be used to isolate a worn section of rope. |
 | Figure-of-eight loop: The Figure-of-eight loop is considered strong and secure. Can be tied by taking a bight of rope and tying a figure-of-eight knot, or can be tied directly around/through objects by weaving back through the first figure eight knot (Figure-of-eight follow through), which is the standard method for attaching a rope to a climbing harness. [1] |
 | Directional Figure-of-eight Loop: The Inline figure-of-eight loop is similar to a figure-of-eight loop but used to form a loop that will be loaded longitudinally in a line under tension. Particularly useful in rope tightening systems where the loop is established as a means to secure a pulley or carabiner onto the main line to reduce the amount of work needed to tighten the entire system. Similar to a trucker's hitch. |
 | Double bowline: The double bowline is commonly used by sport climbers who take multiple lead falls and then have trouble untying their figure eights. |
 | Double Figure Eight Loop (also known as Bunny Ears): Used for equalising two anchors using the rope. |
 | Yosemite bowline: Also called a bowline with a Yosemite finish, this is another way of tying the rope to the harness. |
 | Bowline on a bight: Used for equalizing anchors. |
| Stopper Knots | |
 | Stevedore knot (also known as Double figure eight): The Stevedore knot is tied at the end of a rope to prevent the end from unraveling, slipping through another knot, or passing back through a hole, block, or belay/rappel device. It is more bulky and less prone to jamming than the closely related figure-of-eight knot. |
 | Overhand knot: The Overhand knot is a component of many knots used in climbing. |
 | Monkey's fist: The Monkey's Fist is used to tie the end of a climbing rope into a tight ball so the rope can be thrown farther/easier. |
Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains to small boulders. Climbing is done for locomotion, sporting recreation, for competition, and is also done in trades that rely on ascension, such as construction and military operations. Climbing is done indoors and outdoors, on natural surfaces, and on artificial surfaces
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.
Figure-eight loop is a type of knot created by a loop on the bight. It is used in climbing and caving.
The Flemish loop or figure-eight loop is perhaps stronger than the loop knot. Neither of these knots is used at sea, as they are hard to untie. In hooking a tackle to any of the loops, if the loop is long enough it is better to arrange the rope as a cat's paw.
The sailor's hitch is a secure, jam-proof hitch knot. A hitch knot is a type of knot that has the ability to fit to the size and shape of an object that it is being tied to.
A double bowline is a type of loop knot. Instead of the single turn of the regular bowline, the double bowline uses a round turn. This forms a more secure loop than a standard bowline.
A climbing harness is a piece of equipment that allows a climber to tie in to the safety of a rope. It is used in rock and ice climbing, abseiling, and lowering; this is in contrast to other activities requiring ropes for access or safety such as industrial rope work, construction, and rescue and recovery, which use safety harnesses instead.
Glossary of climbing terms relates to rock climbing, mountaineering, and to ice climbing.
Rock-climbing equipment varies with the specific type of climbing that is undertaken. Bouldering needs the least equipment outside of climbing shoes, climbing chalk and optional crash pads. Sport climbing adds ropes, harnesses, belay devices, and quickdraws to clip into pre-drilled bolts. Traditional climbing adds the need to carry a "rack" of temporary passive and active protection devices. Multi-pitch climbing, and the related big wall climbing, adds devices to assist in ascending and descending fixed ropes. Finally, aid climbing uses unique equipment to give mechanical assistance to the climber in their upward movement.
Abseiling, also known as rappelling, is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in contrast to lowering off, in which the rope attached to the person descending is paid out by their belayer.
Self-locking devices are pieces of rock-climbing equipment intended to arrest the fall of solo climbers who climb without partners. This device is used for rope solo climbing, for "ground-up climbing", and for "top rope solo climbing". To date, several types of self-locking devices have evolved.
In climbing and mountaineering, belaying comprises techniques used to create friction within a climbing protection system, particularly on a climbing rope, so that a falling climber does not fall very far. A climbing partner typically applies tension at the other end of the rope whenever the climber is not moving, and removes the tension from the rope whenever the climber needs more rope to continue climbing. The belay is the place where the belayer is anchored, which is typically on the ground, or on ledge but may also be a hanging belay where the belayer themself is suspended from an anchor in the rock on a multi-pitch climb.
In rock climbing, a nut is a metal wedge threaded on a wire that climbers use for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock. Quickdraws are clipped to the nut wire by the ascending climber and the rope threads through the quickdraw. Nuts come in a variety of sizes and styles, and several different brands are made by competing manufacturers. Most nuts are made of aluminum. Larger nuts may be threaded on Dyneema cord instead of wire, but this has become unusual.
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations or indoor climbing walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with mental control. Knowledge of proper climbing techniques and the use of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes.
An ascender is a device used for directly ascending, or for facilitating protection, with a fixed rope when climbing on steep mountain terrain. A form introduced in the 1950's became so popular it began the term "Jumar" for the device, and the verb "to jumar" to describe its use in ascending.
A Prusik is a friction hitch or knot used to attach a loop of cord around a rope, applied in climbing, canyoneering, mountaineering, caving, rope rescue, ziplining, and by arborists. The term Prusik is a name for both the loops of cord used to tie the hitch and the hitch itself, and the verb is "to prusik" or "prusiking". More casually, the term is used for any friction hitch or device that can grab a rope. Due to the pronunciation, the word is often misspelled Prussik, Prussick, or Prussic.
A sling or runner is an item of climbing equipment consisting of a tied or sewn loop of webbing. These can be wrapped around sections of rock, hitched to other pieces of equipment, or tied directly to a tensioned line using a Prusik style knot. They may be used as anchors, to extend an anchor to reduce rope drag, in anchor equalization, or to climb a rope.
A Yosemite bowline is a loop knot often perceived as having better security than a bowline. If the knot is not dressed correctly, it can potentially collapse into a noose, however testing reveals this alternative configuration to be strong and safe as a climbing tie-in.
Self-rescue is a group of techniques in climbing and mountaineering where the climber(s) – sometimes having just been severely injured – use their equipment to retreat from dangerous or difficult situations on a given climbing route without calling on third party search and rescue (SAR) or mountain rescue services for help.
In climbing and mountaineering, a traverse is a section of a climbing route where the climber moves laterally, as opposed to in an upward direction. The term has broad application, and its use can range from describing a brief section of lateral movement on a pitch of a climbing route, to large multi-pitch climbing routes that almost entirely consist of lateral movement such as girdle traverses that span the entire rock face of a crag, to mountain traverses that span entire ridges connecting chains of mountain peaks.
The offset figure-eight bend is a poor knot that has been implicated in the deaths of several rock climbers. The knot may capsize (invert) under load, as shown in the figure, and this can happen repeatedly. Each inversion reduces the lengths of the tails. Once the tails are used up completely, the knot comes undone.
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