Knot to be Without — The One Knot Everyone Should Know

When is the last time you learned a simple skill that could save your life? Well, if you don’t already know the bowline knot, that counter will restart today. Take 15 minutes and learn this knot and practice it often enough that it gets engrained in your memory. Anyone who goes outside should know it.

The bowline knot is a quick knot with high holding strength that won’t tighten or loosen when pulling great loads. This makes it the go-to knot in a survival situation if you need to be hoisted out of somewhere since it will hold but not cinch down on you. Now hopefully no one reading this will ever need to use the bowline knot in this way but if you do, knowing it could be the difference in making it out or not.

There are a ton of other practical reasons to use the bowline knot that are less severe too. I’ve had to tie up boats with a fouled motor to be pulled across a big lake in a storm. Pulling a big boat against the wind requires a knot you can trust. You also want to be able to untie the rope after all the tugging when you make it back to the ramp. The bowline knot can be used anytime a strong temporary connection needs to be made. Quick to tie, quick to untie.

If you fall in a canyon and someone throws you a rope its time for a bowline knot, that open loop you see would be around you. Could also be through the eyelet of your boat, ATV or used in a hundred other ways.

A bush pilot friend of mine can tie a bowline knot with one hand and his eyes closed in less than 2 seconds. He practices it often due to his higher likelihood of needing this knot in a survival situation. He told me that to be the most useful, you need to practice with one hand and without vision. This covers more scenarios that may arise.

I am not routinely flying through the mountains of Alaska like my buddy but the way I figure, any time you spend honing a useful skill is time well spent. When that skill could help save your life or someone around you, well that’s just the icing on the cake.

If you are looking for more useful outdoors tips check out our LTH youtube page here: Illinois Learn to Hunt – YouTube

See you in the woods!