A version of this story ran in The Virginian-Pilot on Sept. 14, 2005. Hurricane or no, we’re in for a blow. Time to start thinking about how to secure the woodpile or lash the garbage cans to a tree.

Knowing how to tie a knot is an essential set of skills needed in order to stay safe out in the wilderness, and one of the ...

Knots: they attach us to ropes, connect slings to trees, substitute for dropped gear, secure tents, create belay anchors. Like the Force, knots surround us, protect us, and bind our galaxy together.

For nearly an hour on Aug. 7, 1974, Philippe Petit walked a wire he had illegally rigged between the New York World Trade Center’s twin towers. Petit’s latest feat is writing and illustrating the ...

High-wire artist Philippe Petit’s rigging explained in Why Knot?, his new book on the art of knot tying. When Philippe Petit stepped out on a high-wire illegally strung between the twin towers of the ...

A long time ago, my father showed me how he tied a "Dutchman," a specialized knot used by truckers in the 1940s and '50s to tie a load onto a truck. But he never really taught it to me, so I didn't ...