Alpine Butterfly

The Alpine Butterfly is a midline knot sometimes used to tie in the middle man during glacier travel. It has found a use, instead of a clove hitch, when equalising anchors for a top rope set up (in specific circumstances). Also sometimes used in Tyrolean traverses. It's easier to untie, after being weighted, than a figure eight and uses less rope. Follow these steps to tie the Alpine Butterfly:

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Step 1: Form a loop in the rope. Step 2: Twist the loop, so that it becomes two loops as shown above.

Step 3: Grab the top of the upper loop and fold it underneath the line. Step 4: Continue the wrap, feeding it back through original loop.

Step 5: Pull tight and clip your load to the protruding loop.

Reader's Feedback

"...The best way [ to tie an Apline Butterfly ] is to simply coil the rope around your hand so that there are three strands on your upturned hand. You then take the coil closest to your fingers and take it back towards your wrist. You then take the coil which is now closest to your fingers and take it towards your wrist except this time you will feed this coil underneath and through the coils which are left on your upturned hand. You will then have a bight of rope protruding through these coils and it will be pointing towards your fingers. Take hold of the bight in your teeth and pull the two ends of the rope that are coming in towards the knot. Voila, you now have a simple to tie Alpine Butterfly. This way of tying is way less able to be stuffed up than that which is illustrated. It's also much easier to accomplish". - Phil Box.