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I was watching a video this am where a guy tied a clove hitch and passed it though a carabiner one handed. This seemed a very handy technique to know.

I usually use both hands to tie this, make a loop in one hand, loop in another cross them over pass them into a carabiner.

Can someone describe the technique to do this one handed?

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    There are two ways. One is more for playing, where you really do the clove hitch with just one hand. The other is very useful, where you create it with one hand and a biner. The intermediate "results" are: rope through biner, then munter in biner and finally clove hitch in biner. Both are tricky and would certainly need pictures to be explained - my usual wordy explanations wouldn't help much. So I am waiting as well :)
    – imsodin
    Jun 7, 2017 at 13:46
  • @imsodin I'll try to take a few photos and post an answer tonight or tomorrow. But I won't discourage anyone from being faster than me ;-)
    – anderas
    Jun 7, 2017 at 13:53
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    There is video on youtube. I don't want to copy as this might be copyright climbing.com/skills/…
    – paparazzo
    Jun 7, 2017 at 13:57
  • That's actually not how the guy did it. He seemed to twist his hand then clipped it on (as a clove hitch) in one movement...
    – user2766
    Jun 7, 2017 at 15:12
  • @Liam That probably was what I have shown in my answer - I had to hold the cord/rope that way because it is kind of stiff and because I had to take the photo with my other hand. But if you hold the top of the loop (instead of the bottom) in steps 2 and 3, the motion looks like a simple twist of the hand.
    – anderas
    Jun 7, 2017 at 20:48

2 Answers 2

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I found several videos showing a one-handed clove-hitch without clipping, as I think you want:

https://youtu.be/os_tQdhLI9Y?t=200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8qSoIY6FPc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-4RMnULYIM

It looks a little fiddly to me and I'm not sure where this would be needed versus the more common clip and re-clip method anderas illustrated, but it does look slick. I don't have a rope handy; please let me know how this works for you when you try it.

Okay, I found a piece of cord and followed along with the first video, and it's actually pretty easy. With a bit of practice it could be second nature.

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  • Yes! That's what he did. Seemed very slick. I guess you'd want to be confident you don't tie a munter instead of a clove but with a bit of practice.....
    – user2766
    Jun 8, 2017 at 14:28
  • "Where this would be needed": You arrive at the end of a pitch, there's anchor bolts. You clip a carabiner to the bolt and attach yourself to it via the clove hitch. Doing it one-handed means you can use the other hand to hold onto something.
    – Lagerbaer
    Jun 8, 2017 at 15:57
  • @Lagerbaer Yes but you can also do that with the method shown in anderas's answer which was and is my point.
    – Mr.Wizard
    Jun 8, 2017 at 16:04
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The basic steps are to clip the rope, form a loop with one end, move it around the other end of the cord/rope and clip it into the carabiner again.

In the following images, I'm using a somewhat stiff piece of cord and slightly exaggerating some steps to improve visibility.

Step 1: Clip the rope into the biner:

step1

Step 2: Form a loop on the "back" rope with the outside end on the far side of the biner. Usually, you would hold the top of the loop instead of the cord below the loop (unless you are using stiff cord or taking a photo):

step2

Step 3: Move the loop in front of the biner:

step3

Step 4: Clip it:

step4

Step 5: Tighten it!

step5

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  • This is good, but not quite what I saw. The person made the loops in his hand then just clipped it as a fully functioning clove hitch?!
    – user2766
    Jun 8, 2017 at 7:52
  • That said I've been meaning to figure out how to do it this way for a while...
    – user2766
    Jun 8, 2017 at 7:52
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    @Liam Ah, then I misunderstood your comment. I haven't figured out how to "prepare" the full clove hitch and clipping that...
    – anderas
    Jun 8, 2017 at 8:00

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