Clove hitch

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

Tying

Easy method

This method is very robust. Suitable for learning how to tie the hitch.

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  Take two bights of a rope next to each other (1)

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  Form loops out of them by rotating them counterclockwise (2)

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  Form a hitch by placing the right loop over the left one (3)

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  Pull a carabiner through the loops (4)

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  Seat the knot by sequentially pulling the rope ends (5,6) and lock the gate (7)

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  Inspect the knot and the carabiner gate (8)

To safely tie and inspect the knot, remember that the rope ends coming out of the knot should be sticking-out 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. Always use the hand at the site that the gate is facing.

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  Start with a rope through a carabiner with the gate pointing right

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  grab the rear rope strand by your right hand from the left side, thumb pointing down

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  Rotate the hand into a thumb-up position, making a loop (1)

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  Open the gate by pulling the rope through it (2), the rope end-string coming from top of your hand should go behind the carabiner

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  After pulling the rope through, the gate closes itself automatically (3)

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  Seat the knot by sequentially pulling the rope ends (4,5), and lock the gate (6)

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  Inspect the knot and the carabiner gate (8)

Quick repositioning

One of the strongest points of the clove hitch is that it can be repositioned quickly without cancelling the setup, or opening the carabiner.

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  Loosen the knot by pulling the middle strand between the two loops (1)

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  Pull only one of the strands (2)

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  The knot got repositioned

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

The clove hitch generally does not slip below 6 kN of force if you use a dynamic rope on a carabiner. Chance of the clove hitch slipping is higher if it is tied with a static rope, and/or around a big-diameter object (tree, smooth stone). There is a report of slow slippage already at 3 kN of force applied in case that an 8mm dyneema sling was tied on a carabiner. In critical applications such as anchor building, Clove hitch should therefore be backed-up, otherwise it might slip off.

For detailed list of values, see the table on the right.