Acknowledgments
I owe a great debt to many people who have taught me about knots.

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First is my father, who was Scoutmaster of Troop 16, Fort Worth, Texas.

My own Scoutmasters, James Otis Irby, Glen A. Norton, Jack A. Bettis and the scouts of the Beaver Patrol, Troop 9 and Senior Scouts of Outfit 2009, Fort Worth.

"Captain" Frank Kidd and the staff of Worth Ranch, Palo Alto, Texas.

The staff and campers at Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron, New Mexico, 1947-1955.

The Navy Chief Boatswain's Mate at Great Lakes.

Barry C. Bishop who first showed me, at Rocky Mountain National Park, how to tie a climbing rope around my waist.

Austrian, French, and Swiss guides who led me up the big mountains and brought me back safely with the aid of knots, in 1958.

Ski patrollers at Tenney Mountain, Loon Mountain, and the Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol.

Chris Joosen, avalanche instructor and snow ranger at Hermit Lake in Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington.

Marc Chauvin, Rick Wilcox, and Maury McKinney, guides in the Mount Washington valley.

Leaders of the Eastern Division, National Ski Patrol.

Leaders and participants in the International Snow Science Workshop, Sunriver, Oregon, and in the National Avalanche School at Incline Village, Nevada, and at AMC Pinkham Notch and Tuckerman Ravine, New Hampshire.

People who have taken an interest in my work and encouraged me, such as Roger Damon, Sandi Skull, Rich Hartmann, and Bob Vocke, who are all students of avalanches.

Sam Colbeck of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories (CRREL), Hanover, New Hampshire, who helped me understand some concepts in physics.

Members of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, and especially those of the New England Region, whose work is always encouraging.

Joy Butler of Plymouth State College and participants in the conference on games at Waterville Valley.

Correspondents Pieter van de Griend, Peter Suber, Dan Lehman, Charles Warner, and Geoffrey Budworth, who have commented wisely on these papers and who encouraged my work on this project.

Ski Patrollers and Ski Patrol ambassadors in New Hampshire at Tenney Mountain, Loon Mountain, and the Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol, particularly Michael Oktavik, Dennis Desmaris, Dave Hill, Eric Smith, Andrew Bourdain, Rich Benevento, Tom Sutton, and Thayer and Candy Raines. They all helped to catalyze the concepts in these papers. Andy Bourdain seemed to know the answers to my questions before I had finished asking them. I am especially indebted to Bill Blackwell, who helped me work out the principles of knot security and to Betsy McKenzie, who helped me understand the way a knot behaves.

My neighbors Alan Hunter and George Wendell; Jim Shimberg at the Rock Barn in Plymouth, New Hampshire; and Dick Martel of the Manchester, New Hampshire, Fire Department.

The excellent knot instructors I have known, most recently Dean Chandler of the New Hampshire Fire Academy; Pokey (Richard) Lowe, who taught High Angle Rescue at SOLO in Conway, New Hampshire.

Dozens of writers about knots and knot tying, mainly Ashley, Day, Barnes, Leuben, and Jean Piaget.

The people who have written so tellingly about knot use in mountaineering, such as Joe Simpson and Heinrich Harrer; Arthur Ketchen, Montserrat College of Art, who taught me a lot about the shapes of knots; and John Kirkman, who introduced me to technical writing.

Members of my family, who read the manuscripts with sharp eyes and good sense, and who are responsible, of course, for any errors or omissions.

The dozens of other people who have volunteered to talk with me about knots and knot tying and the hundreds who had to be coaxed or bribed.

Thank you.

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