Clove hitch is an essential knot used for its adjustability and reliability. Its employed for instance in anchor building, offsetting a belay station for belay of the second climber and for self-attaching of the lead climber with a rope to the anchor point.
Clove hitch
Use(s)
Anchor building, (self-)attaching climber to an anchor, belay station offsetting and more
Pros
Fast, simple, robust, easily adjustable
Cons
In specific cases it is prone to stuck or slip slightly under bigger loads. Due to chance of slippage, it is strongly recommended to back it up in critical applications.
Category
Hitch
Strength
polyamid ~50-60%, 6mm aramid ~35%, slips lower in some cases[1]
To safely tie and inspect the knot, remember that the rope ends coming out of the knot should be sticking in the opposite directions and that they should be surrounded by the section of the rope that stems from between the loops.
One-hand method
Non-crucial, but handy once you have only one hand free.
Steps description: Start with a rope through a carabiner. Grab the rope strand which runs from the back of the carabiner with your hand thumb pointing down and rotate the hand into a thumb-up position (1). Open the gate (2) and pull the rope through the gate from the front to back and seat the rope into the carabiner, the gate closes itself automatically (3). Sequentially pull the rope strands to tighten the knot (4,5) and screw the safety-lock (5). Inspect that the knot is tied properly and that the gate is locked (7).
Quick repositioning
One of the strongest points of the clove hitch is its quick repositioning without cancelling the setup or opening the carabiner.
Steps description: Pull the middle strand between the two loops (1). By this you loosen the knot and pull the rope from the both sides. Then pull one of the strands, re-tightening and repositioning the knot in the process (2).
Slippage
Table of slipping forces (*=breaks):
Material
Force (kN)
7.9 mm 1/2 rope
6.5
8.9 mm triple-rated rope
7.8
8 mm Dyneema®
3.0
11 mm Dyneema®
5.1
19 mm polyamid
10.1*
6 mm accessory cord
6.9
this section is not yet inspected thoroughly, statements might be incorrect and/or misleading!
In case of a dynamic rope around a carabiner, the clove hitch generally does not slip till ~6 kN. Chance of slipping is higher if the clove hitch is tied around a big-diameter object (tree, smooth stone), and with static ropes. With 8mm dyneema sling around a carabiner there is a report of slow slippage already ~3 kN of force. For list of values, see the table on the right.[1] Therefore the clove hitch should be backed-up by another knot in critical applications, for example in cases where it might slip off the end of the sling/rope.
