How do I know my knot is tied correctly? I had thought the test would be performative, but here was a question about epistemology. "Ok, now, how do you know the figure eight knot is tied correctly?" We always keep the circle formed by the figure eight knot within one fist's distance of the belay loop." A dark cave, on top rope, with lots of slack out. "Really?" I supposed I could imagine that happening in an offwidth that got weird, or a dark cave. "Yeah, well what can happen is the climber can accidentally put their leg through the loop if it’s too big." I answered cautiously, "It just keeps the rope out of the way." It was best to have as little rope and knot in front of them as possible because they liked to grab at it when they got sketched. I thought back to the people I had taken on their first climb. maybe that was a reason to have it short, but all harnesses had belay loops now. I think I used the figure eight loop to clip into anchor systems, instead of clipping into both the waist and leg loops. My first harness was a Chouinard Bod with no belay loop. So can you tell me why it’s important to have this knot one fist's width from your belay loop?" What if it had specific technical names, like the human body? "The belay loop?" I wasn’t sure I could correctly name all the parts of my harness. I had not expected to be quizzed about my harness's anatomy. "So, can you tell me the name of the thing you're supposed to clip into?" They were polite and smiled, but they smiled across a gap. I don't know what this hair means now, probably nothing. In the ’80s, it would have been post-punk/new wave. "Yeah, that looks good." They seemed like they were around twenty years old, with a stylish, perky haircut. I tied the most normal looking figure eight I could imagine close to the belay loop, about six inches of tail, well dressed.
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