The next step is a little more involved. We'll be using one of the millions of variations of truckie's hitches (trucker's hitch in the US) to put tension on the line.



To tie this knot:



* Put it around the tree.

* Tie an alpine butterfly* in the part of the rope coming from the first tree about 60cm (2ft) from the second tree.

* Put the end of the rope through the alpine butterfly. We are creating an ad hoc pulley system to tension the line more easily.

* Next put the end back around the tree. We're going to tie a round turn and two half hitches, because it allows us to keep the tension on the line while we tie off. At this point pull on the end of the rope to put the tension into the system.

* Keeping tension on the end, wrap it around the tree again. This is how we keep the tension while finishing up the system, there's a lot of friction in that round turn meaning it won't slip.

* Now to tie off, we tie the two half hitches. Sorry about the sun in the first pic of the first half hitch. To make this easier to untie later, it's a good idea not to pull all the rope through when making the first half hitch so you make a loop. You'll use this loop to tie the second half hitch. It's hard to see what I mean from the pic (since I didn't actually do that when taking these photos, i made the loop on the second half hitch).

* Tie another half hitch using the loop

* I usually tie another half hitch out of habit (makes it clearer from a distance that the knot's tied off, useful when building rescue rigs). this image shows the finished knot.



At this point you can clip on your gear. I've found it's quite nice to have such easy access to my pack when in my hammock, and it acts as a bit of a wind break for my feet (but only a little). All I have to do to access my gear is slide it along the ridge line, the carabiners make it really easy slide.



If you're wondering about the waist strap, it does touch the top of the tarp but should stay dry. Since there's so much weight on the ridge line it hangs quite low below the tarp when its taut meaning that things won't get too wet. In this picture my pack still has my sleeping bag and hammock and all my other gear and it still won't hang this low.



If any of the pictures are unclear leave a comment and I'll take some more and update this post.







* I have chosen to not link to the animatedknots.com article on how to tie this knot, because it teaches it in a way that is dangerous in situations where the line may come under load. This instruct able is not a place where this is likely, but when using it for things like rock climbing (or roof safety systems or rescue like I do), it's never a good idea to wrap a rope around your hand. If you do, you might lose it (the hand, not the rope).