Alpine Butterfly Bend

A completed alpine butterfly bed. A single blue rope entering from the top meets a single green rope entering from the bottom. They form a knot, and three inches of each rope stick out of the knot to the right. The tail of the blue rope is next to the tail of the green rope and slightly higher than it.

This excellent bend has all the advantages and disadvantages of the alpine butterfly. It’s quick and easy to tie and holds well under load.

It’s also easy to tie wrong: only use this knot if you’re confident in your ability to tie and inspect it.

It is almost identical to the alpine butterfly, so learning one means learning both.

Ropelab has an excellent article on the alpine butterfly with good information about tying and inspecting it.

Step by step

A single blue rope enters from the top of the frame and turns toward the right of the frame. A single green rope enters from the bottom and turns toward the right, running next to the blue rope. After about twelve inches of travel, the ends of the two ropes are tied together in an overhand knot.

1Although it isn’t necessary, we find it helpful to temporarily tie the two ends together with an overhand knot.

The horizontal run of the two ropes has been flipped over, so the green rope crosses over the blue rope right where the ropes join. The horizontal run of the green rope is now higher in the frame than the blue rope.

2Make a twist in the bight.

About three inches along the horizontal run, the ropes have been twisted again in the same direction, so the blue rope crosses over the green rope. The rope now forms two loops, with the green rope above the blue rope for the first loop, and the blue rope above the green one for the second loop.

3Make a second twist in the bight, going in the same direction as the first.

In both twists, the top rope travels from SW to NE and the bottom one travels from NW to SE.

The second, larger, loop has been flipped over to the left, right after the crossing where the blue rope goes over the green rope. The overhand knot now lies to the left of the vertical parts of the ropes.

4Flip the second twist over the first one.

The overhand knot passes up through the smaller loop, so it now lies just to the right of the twist where the blue rope crosses over the green rope.

5Pull the center of the second twist under the twist and up through the middle of the first twist.

A completed alpine butterfly bed. A single blue rope entering from the top meets a single green rope entering from the bottom. They form a knot, and three inches of each rope stick out of the knot to the right. The tail of the blue rope is next to the tail of the green rope and slightly higher than it.

6Carefully snug the knot by pulling simultaneously on the standing parts and the tails.

If you tied the ends together in step 1, you can untie them now.

Notes for nerds

References and naming

This knot doesn’t appear in ABOK.

The alpine butterfly bend is almost identical to the alpine butterfly, which is ABOK # 1053 (Lineman’s Loop).

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