Hitches & Knots
The Clove Hitch...pretty good knot to know. It is taught and utilized in many disciplines of ropecraft. The clove hitch can be seen utilized within anchor systems, at a belay station tie in, within a change of direction / artificial high anchor system, at the beginning of lashings, attached to the spine of a carabiner as a “biner block” in releasable anchors, and the list goes on and on. Due to some of the occurrences of the clove slipping, there are a bunch of variations like the rolling hitch, constrictor hitch and tautline hitch. We find ourselves using the clove hitch more than expected, often in climbing and mountaineering conditions. Nonetheless, good knot to know and understand. If you happen to dabble in the “knot geek” world, understanding the mechanism of action / physics behind hitches allows you to correctly utilize and improvise them operationally. The clove hitch is basically a system of inequalities that must be met for the hitch to hold. Matt Krauel wrote a great paper entitled The Mathematical Theory of Hitches. It is posted as a pdf below, so click on it and check it...before you wreck it (clove hitch on page 4). If using to tie off an AHD, the “cinch” hitch may be a better alternative.
