Sunday Afternoon with MCAP

Last Sunday I was invited by my friend to join the ropemanship and knot tying training with Marc Gana. Those people who are into rock climbing and rappelling they know and climbed with  Marc. He was the founder of the extreme adventure zone, and have years of experience using the rope. He is a rockstar (working with rocks ) on his own right.

                                   Marc showing his ways with the rope

Mcap-short for- Mountain Climber Alliance of the Phillipines another group created on facebook by Edwin Gatia- whose name always associated when you mentioned Guiting Guiting.As he, among others-included in the first group who was able to reached the Peak of  Mt Guiting Guiting back in the days.

Ropemanship is the skill climbing with ropes. All outdoor enthusiast, from some point of their lives probably used ropes one way or the other. Ropemanship is also important skills to have to rescue lives during natural disaster and catastrophe-such as typhoon- flash food, landslide, earthquake or any other emergency that requires rope to save lives and properties. Having said that ,being an ourdoorsman requires us to have a few skills with knot tying.

                                Marc is sharing some of his favorite knots

Ropemanship always goes hand in hand with knot tying. According to Marc and from the internet there are thousands of knots available. But you dont need to memorize all of it, you just need to learned  a few knots and how to used in a given situation really matters. Bear Grylls shared his Top 10 knots on his ipod/iphone applications . Marc Gana shared his top 20 on the training.

For simplicity, I will just share some of it. These are very easy to learned and to remember. As of all other things, practicing it ,until it becomes second nature should be your main goal, because you really never know when and where  you're going to need it-maybe the life you will save will be your own.

The following knots below are some of most used knots in backpacking and hiking. From tying your guyline to the peg, or making a makeshift tarp or tying your hammock to a tree.  These knots are very useful in the outdoors. 

1. Bowline - makes a reasonably secure loop in the end of a piece of rope. It has many uses, e.g., to fasten a mooring line to a ring or a post. Under load, it does not slip or bind. With no load it can be untied easily. Two bowlines can be linked together to join two ropes. Its principal shortcoming is that it cannot be tied, or untied, when there is a load on the standing end. It should therefore be avoided when, for example, a mooring line may have to be released under load.

2.Figure of eight - allows the simple and reliable Figure 8 loop to be tied to a ring, a carabiner, or your own harness. It is reasonably easy to remember, tie, and check. When completed it forms a Figure 8 Loop

3. Clove hitch -A clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most important knots.^[1] A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot. It can be used as a binding knot, but is not particularly secure in that role.^[2] A clove hitch made around the rope's own standing part is known as either two half-hitches or buntline hitch, depending on whether the turns of the clove hitch progress away from or towards the hitched object.

4.Cow Hitch - The cow hitch is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. The cow hitch comprises a pair of half-hitches tied in opposing directions, as compared to the clove hitch in which the half-hitches are tied in the same direction. It has several variations and is known under a variety of names. It can be tied either with the end of the rope or with a bight.

5.Overhand Knot - The overhand knot is one of the most fundamental knots and forms the basis of many others including the simple noose, overhand loop, angler's loop, reef knot, fisherman's knot and water knot. The overhand knot is very secure, to the point of jamming badly. It should be used if the knot is intended to be permanent. It is often used to prevent the end of a rope from unraveling.

6.Sheep Shank - The sheepshank is a type of knot that is used to shorten a rope or take up slack. This knot is not stable. It will fall apart under too much load or too little load.

7. Sheet bend (also known as becket bend, weaver's knot and weaver's hitch) is a bend, that is, a knot that joins two ropes together. Doubled, it is effective in binding lines of different diameter or rigidity securely together, although it has a tendency to work loose when not under load.

 8. Square Knot ( Reef Knot ) - The reef knot or square knot is an ancient and simple binding knot used to secure a rope or line around an object. Although the reef knot is often seen used for tying two ropes together, it is not recommended for this purpose due to potential instability of the knot.
A reef knot is formed by tying a left-handed overhand knot and then a right-handed overhand knot, or vice versa. A common mnemonic for this procedure is "right over left, left over right", which is often appended with the rhyming suffix "... makes a knot both tidy and tight". Two consecutive overhands of the same handedness will make a granny knot. The working ends of the reef knot must emerge both at the top or both at the bottom, otherwise a thief knot results.

9.Taut-line hitch -The taut-line hitch is an adjustable loop knot for use on lines under tension. It is useful when the length of a line will need to be periodically adjusted in order to maintain tension. It is made by tying a rolling hitch around the standing part after passing around an anchor object. Tension is maintained by sliding the hitch to adjust size of the loop, thus changing the effective length of the standing part without retying the knot.It is typically used for securing tent lines in outdoor activities involving camping, by arborists when climbing trees,^[1] for creating adjustable moorings in tidal areas,^[2] and to secure loads on vehicles.

 

  

10.Siberian Hitch (or Evenk knot) is a knot used to attach a rope to an object. The hitch is thought to have originated from the Evenk people of Siberia.^{[citation needed]} It is a quick release hitch often used by Ray Mears during his bushcraft television series. The hitch is known for the ease in which it can be tied even whilst wearing gloves or mittens in cold climates. This hitch is also slipped and therefore can be released by pulling the short end of the rope.^[1]

 

 

^{Disclaimer :} 

 ^{All pictures of the knots above and its descriptions came from the internet.} 

 

^{I wanna say thank you to all Mcap members for their warm welcome and hospitality . And to Marc Gana for sharing his talents and time to make this event possible.}