Prusik Knot and it use in the quick setup of your hammock

One of the main reasons more people these days are making the switch to camping with hammocks is there lightweight and quick setup time. For this reason you can remain on the trail for longer and when it comes time to make camp it can be done in literally a couple of minutes . It is fast becoming the choice of experienced trekkers and hikers that need to minimize the weight they carry around on their backs as they make trails off into the great unknown.

 There are many techniques in setting up a hammock and it can be debated until the cows come home, but I find a simple and very low budget way of doing this is through a simple prusik knot. A prusik knot is a simple design that allows a looped piece of cord or rope to be attached to your main line and enables you to adjust the length allowing the looped cord to be maneuvered up and down the main line until the desired length has been found between the two trees you have chosen to set your hammock up on.  When there is no tension on the looped cord you can slide it up and down with ease , but as soon as there is tension applied  to the knot  ( from your body weight) the looped core holds fast onto the main line and will remain that way until you feel the need to make any further adjustments .

Most diagrams and people will say when creating this knot to loop it through itself three times , in my experience I just go that one step  further and loop it through one more time , with the four looped system you will find that even if the ropes are not a formulated match , and trust me on this, some climbers I know that put their lives in this knots hand and have to be spot on when it comes to choosing the diameters of the ropes that go together so there is no slippage ( Technical term folks ) But as we are just a few feet of the ground we can avoid the science and just down to kicking back .

The one main thing you will need to remember when choosing your cordage for use of a prusik is the diameter of the cords; it’s a rule of thumb that you want the rope for the prusik knot to be half the diameter of your main line. I have a quick example VIDEO EXAMPLE also showing how fast you can set up your hammock using this knot...

And being a proud Aussie I am happy to inform you the origins of this knot where born under our sun drenched skies, by wait for it … Karl Prusik who was an Australian mountaineer in the 1930’s

So I hope you found some useful info here, feel free to leave your comments below, and happy hiking camping and hammocking.

Signing off for now

Jason Kearney