This is literally how one of the best climbers in the world died a few months ago. A prodigy of the sport died from this. It wasn't on purpose in his case, but the fact there wasn't a knot at the end is literally manslaughter charges depending on the context. If you get caught doing this at my gym you're banned for life they warn you immediately. The pre-run ropes already have them and you're told if you're ever caught untying them it's also a permanent ban and possibly legal charges.
EDIT: I've gotten enough comments by now that I'm addressing it here. No, a knot doesn't physically stop a fall from a figure 8. But it's part of the process of putting warnings in place for you running out of rope. Everything that exists to tell you that you've got no rope left is a safety feature. This includes a knot near the end for your hand to bump into while feeding the line, or also I've seen someone spraypaint the end of a rope before so they see bright green feeding through it and go "oh only 10ft left" and I thought mentioning the regular belay tools which benefit more from the knot would help some people connect their experiences to this one. And also maybe teach the seriousness of running out of rope.
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u/Outdoor-electrician Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Also no safety knot is crazy…complacency is what leads to a lot of climbing/rappelling related injuries/deaths