Climbing harness the purpose, primarily a variation of the double bowline, but the figure-eight is usually preferred. Although it is harder to untie after a fall, it is inherently more secure, easier to tie, and easier to verify that it has been tied correctly. There are many variations of the bowline knot, and some will untie themselves when repeatedly stressed and unstressed, as is common in climbing. In addition to the weight bearing parts of the harness, there are parts of the harness that are not designed to be part of the safety system. These include the gear loops, used for carrying
Signature of a knot Signature of a knot The signature of a knot is a topological invariant in knot theory. It may be computed from the Seifert surface. Given a knot "K" in the 3-sphere, it has a Seifert surface "S" whose boundary is "K". The Seifert form of "S" is the pairing formula_1 given by taking the linking number formula_2 where formula_3 and formula_4 indicate the translates of "a" and "b" respectively in the positive and negative directions of the normal bundle to "S". Given a basis formula_5 for formula_6 (where "g" is the genus of the surface) the Seifert form can be