[2mol]

Nobody does a bowline, that's insane because you can't ring-load (cross-load) it. [0]

Europeans sometimes do the double bowline (traced), but the naming is ambiguous in english, so you have to google double bowline on a bight.

Americans used to do yosemite bowlines, but that fell out of fashion because figure eight (safe and foolproof) and double bowline (safe, trivial to untie after hefty lead falls) cover literally every use case perfectly.

[0]: https://www.saferclimbing.org/en/blog/cross-loading-on-knots

[bmj]

I've been using a double bowline with the Yosemite-style stopper for a long time (I've also heard it referred to a Jack's bend, but I can't find anything quickly to confirm that). Some people give me a hard time about using a double bowline, saying it is "unsafe," but their reason usually boils down to "it's hard to visually inspect." My belay partners (very small list, because I don't let just anyone belay me on lead) typically remind me to re-check my knot just before I leave the ground.

[2mol]

It's generally agreed that it is totally safe (it solves the crossloading issue). I think we can all stick with the proven safe knots that we are comfortable with, and the fact it makes partner check a bit trickier applies also to the double bowline on a bight. I'm equally happy to triple-check myself and make it clear to my belayers that they are off the hook there.

Here is my pitch for "doppelter bulin" (double bowline on a bight):

Even if by some miracle the ENTIRE retraced half of that knot came undone, you would STILL be tied in with a normal bowline. I do a stopper knot too, but I think that illustrates just how bomber it is. And I only use it for single pitches for lead falls, on multipitches I still simply do a figure 8, because why get fancy?

[robinhouston]

A bowline with stopper is a pretty common climbing knot in the UK [0]. I don't have the expertise to weigh into any debates about how safe it is, but I've seen a lot of people use it without incident, and there's no question it's easier to untie than a rethreaded figure-eight.

[0] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/how_to_tie_in_to_...

[craneabove]

Also, Adam Ondra routinely climbs using this tie-in method for the reasons you mention.

[2mol]

The yosemite variant is fine, but maybe we shouldn't take the world's best climber as a reference who has a lot more context and experience to make very measured tradeoffs:

> IMPORTANT: This knot is methodically NOT recommended and yes, it MAY untie while you are climbing. It can happen if your rope is new-ish (and that means it slides easily) and if you don’t tighten the knot with a lot of force. I am always splashing chalk on the knot in case of new rope to increase the friction and I do tighten it with a lot of force. The reasonable and recommended alternative, pretty common and very safe is double bowline. It is almost as big as eight, but at least it is always easy to untie.

https://adamondra.com/updates/my-climbing-more-about-feeling...