Vertical caving terminology and methods > Knots > Common knots
Avoid
A hitch tied on a bight or by threading, that may be mistakenly used to connect to a carabiner or anchor. However, it can slip when loaded, particularly if the object that it is tied around is able to rotate. This knot, and countless other knots taught in the Scouts, have no place in SRT. It is only acceptable in situations where a little bit of grip would be nice but not essential, and it would be acceptable for the knot to slip all the way until it unties at the end of the rope. It also is only acceptable if the person who ties it is constantly there with the knot, to monitor its slippage, and correct it if it slips too far to be useful. This means that it can have some purposes in climbing (where it might be used to set an adjustable connection point in the middle of a sling, which is connected to an anchor at both ends, preventing the clove hitch from slipping off an end, and using gravity to keep it in position). With SRT, however, where ropes get left on a pitch to be used by others, and knots on SRT gear get dragged through a cave and pulled around in all directions, a clove hitch is a liability. However, it may rarely be seen connecting a set of cows tails to a D-ring, so that the lengths of the cows tails can be changed as needed, with one getting longer as the other gets shorter. In this case, it would be unlikely for the knot to walk off the end of the rope used to make the cows tails, since there is another knot clipped to a carabiner at each end of the rope, but they may randomly slip and change length while in use. Made from two single hitches.
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