Tradeoffs between different stopper knots
Because a number of accidents have occurred when a climber was lowered or rappelled off the end of a rope, it is wise to tie a stopper knot in the end(s) of the rope. My question is what stopper knot do you prefer and why?
It seems to me that the desirable features of a stopper knot are that it should be secure as well as quick and easy to tie. According to animatedknots.com, a figure eight can work free (though I would have thought that with sufficient tail, this would not be a problem).
Though not strictly necessary, if you're aware of any empirical tests comparing the effectiveness of different stopper knots, that would be great. I would also be interested in hearing about any accidents in which failure of a stopper knot (e.g. rolling off the end of the rope due to poor knot choice) was a factor.
I personally always use a barrel knot (triple overhand) with 12-18" of tail but some of my climbing partners have different preferences so I am interested in knowing how much difference the choice of stopper knot makes. In particular, are some stopper knots dangerous to use? I would imagine that a single overhand could be a risky choice (particularly with a short tail).
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1 answer
What you are looking for is a knot that,
- Is easy to tie and check that you did it properly.
- Big enough it won't go through the belay device.
- Won't come undone.
That gives you a number of options which depending on the person you may remember one knot more than the next.
- Double overhand (classic stopper knot).
- Triple overhand (classic stopper knot).
- Figure eight on a bight (easy to remember and tie).
- Overhand on a bight (easy to remember and tie, harder to untie than a figure eight on a bight).
Depending on the day I may use any of the above, the only thing with the on a bight knots is that because they are bigger it has a batter chance of getting stuck in a crack on the descent and the double and triple overhands are the classic stopper knots and probably the most commonly used.
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