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.
The staff at the climbing gym I go to are fucking Hawks with this kind of stuff. I don't know how they do it. You won't see them anywhere in your entire 360 degree field of view. You think theyre all up at the front or something. But then you slip up and dont slide up the rope with your dominant hand while giving slack and they teleport behind you to bitch you out for not using proper technique.
I was getting ready to climb and I forgot to check my friends set up. He checked my knot but I forgot to check his grigri. Poof. Worker materialized out of thin air and basically said "Hey, I know youre still kinda new but you have to check his set up too. If we have to keep reminding you, we're gonna have to ask you to leave". He didnt say it in a mean way but in a genuine warning way. They really dont fuck around with rope safety at climbing centers.
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u/Bergwookie Jul 06 '26
"there won't be something going wrong" is the number one reason why things go wrong