the 8th Variation

time and time again i have proven my self to be many things on this site...dork, nerd, geek, obsessive. yeah okay you can say those things. but you realize, your a jerk! name calling jackals! kidding.... come back.. hey.

seriously though, like popeye says "i am, what i am". so i was sitting around thinking about climbing which is common for me. and recently i got an email about technical climbing skills. generally i have shied away from teaching people about rope or safety skills. mostly thats do to the fact that i really really really do not want to be sued. but, today i was thinking about climbing as i said before and i started to obsess about the figure eight knot... oh you know that one? pretty cool right?! how many do you know. for me it started with the idea of do i know eight variations of the figure eight knot... guess what?... oh yeah you guessed it i do. **side bar: "listen negative voices inside my head! if youre just gonna peanut gallery this entire post, id really appreciate it if you just went ahead and did something useful... try cleaning out the cobwebs and old memories of "whats-her-name"**

sorry kids...had to be done. so... obsession, figure eight, eight variations. who wants to know what they are? well too bad.... god! is everybody gonna kick me when im down!!

in no particular yet highly coincidental order:

"the figure eight knot"

this is a no brainer... for people who have brains anyway. i will point out this knot has a use beside being the starting point for tying in. it is an excellent knot for putting in the end of your rope so you dont lower someone off the end. it's more stable than an overhand knot and easier to untie than a fisherman's knot that has been set.

"figure eight follow through"

this all too common knot is also known as the "rethread" or "the tie in knot". every climber im sure knows the first two. otherwise you gotta be asking yourself, "am i actually a climber?"

"figure eight on a bight"

dont cry foul sure it looks the same. but the way it is tied has more in common with the basic eight knot. this guy is very helpful for building anchors that are in a straight line. other than that...

"the in line figure eight"

love this knot. it took me probably the longest to be able to tie without having to think about it first. this guy is super handy for creating directions. think, belaying over a ledge from above and wanting to be able to see the second climb. trust me the first time you find it handy, you love it forever!

"the joining figure eight"

very similar to the follow through, but you start from different ends. its strong, reasonable to untie... all the good stuff. the main thing is it works great for joining two rope of different diameters. like my 10.2 and my 9.0 in the picture.

"the stein knot"

or...the rappelling figure eight, what ever... this is the coolest. you see with the carabiner in place each tail is independently stable. but once you remove the carabiner the eight falls apart and the rope can be pulled through the rap rings, chain, or what have ya. think parties of three,the first two can rap at the same time without effecting the centering of the rope, then the third pulls the biner and comes down. cool right!

"the double looped figure eight on a bight"

this knot like so many others has many names like "dog eared eight", "rabbit ears", "anchor eight"...blah blah the list goes on. it's got two loop that prior to setting can be equalized. its great for two bolt anchors when multi-pitch climbing. i use it almost religiously. bad thing is it will use quite a bit of rope to tie. but we all climb with 70's nowadays right?

"the equalizing 3-point figure eight anchor knot"

i have no idea if anyone calls it that. personally im not even sure if ive ever said that aloud. but this guy is similar to the last knot, but you get three point of coverage, and they are minimally dynamically equalizing. ie the rope will shift some to weight all three points... in theory. look just set it right the first time... so you dont slowly saw through the sheath of your rope!

there you have it kids. you now know more. and knowing is... well... yes...? OH GOD DAMN IT!! didnt any of you watch GI JOE?! it's half the battle! knowing is half the battle!!! sometimes you guys make me so angry i want to start punching babies!

kidding, i would never hit a defenseless child, i wouldnt even shake it... i heard... well, i heard thats bad. in closing i would like to say, yes i know i didnt teach you to tie anything. you can look up every one of these knots via google... i promise. and there a loads of guys with knot tying websites, with waaaaayyyyy cooler animation then i am trying to get into. here's my favorite. check him out: oh, and know your systems, know why and what your doing. i didnt tell you exactly how to apply anything, so NO SUING! no suing! no suing!

(did that look like a shout echoing?)

Cronical

i like so many of you love climbing movies and literature. for that reason i wanted to give a little shout out to Mike Chessler. he's the genius behind http://www.chesslerbooks.com/ . recently i made a large bulk buy of movies from Mike. i took a look on his site, made my dream list of movies i wanted to add to my already huge collection and sent him an email. I said "hey mike, i want all these movies, if i buy them at one time will you give me a discount?" he said sure, quoted me a price and i called him up a little later to place the order. he's a cool old climber. i had bought books from him in the past and he sell cool memorabilia on ebay from time to time. like pitons sign by Royal Robbins. anyway, when guy do good by me i like to give them credit and a little advertising. along with this i think i may have an upcoming top ten climbing movies post.... stay tuned... go check out mikes site for guides, literature, dvds, and lots of other climbing media!

so everyone seems to want me to write more posts! ...well, kids i need some more ideas. what do you want to know about? climbing techniques? products? opinions...i have plenty of those! let me know whatcha need and ill get back to writing, lord knows i got free time.

texture!

so what am i up to.... nada. nothing to be exact. i have been rather lazy but im working on some new ideas. i have one particularly huge thing that i hope to finish... but its a secret for now. on another note, not to long ago i went to the new (new to me anyway) circuit gym in portland oregon, with my newly-wed friends josh and teal. we had a pretty good time! those guys at circuit always set excellent stuff and their walls are awesome in design. one of the best things is the new gym has a cool home woodie feel on steroids! unfortunately i never took a picture of my favorite wall. it had a clear coat with texture over the wood panels. looks fantastic take my word for it. but i am currently trying to get their builders to tell me what they used on their walls so i can put it on my volumes. if so... you know i will share it with you and how to add it to your wall and volumes!