Common mistakes

• Working end too short: the knot pulls out as it settles. Always leave extra tail.
• Not tightening the knot: a loose knot deforms and comes undone. Set it by pulling each strand.
• Using the reef knot to join ropes that carry weight.
• Trusting the number on the label: with knots, wear, and jerks, the rope holds much less.
• Piling on knots when you cannot remember one: one correct knot is worth more than three badly tied ones and is easier to release.
• Tying a person to a rope in the water.
• Not practicing: in an emergency, with cold, fear, and hurry, only the knots you have tied many times will come out.

Practice plan (check off when you can do it without looking and with your eyes closed)

• Bowline around your waist and around a tree
• Figure-eight and figure-eight loop; figure-eight follow-through on a ring
• Alpine butterfly in the middle of a rope
• Reef knot on a triangular bandage
• Single and double sheet bend with two different ropes
• Double fisherman's to close a cord loop
• Clove hitch on a stick and on a railing
• Round turn and two half hitches on a tree
• Timber hitch on a log
• Cow hitch with a loop on a bar
• Adjustable-grip hitch on a tent guy line
• Trucker's hitch tightening a ridgeline between two trees
• Prusik on the ridgeline
• Improved clinch knot on a hook
• Square lashing and tripod with broomsticks
• Pitch a complete tarp in under 15 minutes