Guy-line Knots – What is your favorite knot for tying off guy line and why?

Two half hitches to the tarp and trucker’s hitch to the stake.

Tautline or prussic on the tarp and simple double or tripple wrap with a quick release bow on the stake. That way I can reach the adjustable knot from under the tarp.

Two half hitches on the tarp, taut-line or clove hitch on the stake end depending on whether it is hard or easy to place a stake. For removable guys, I girth hitch the tarp end. (I especially like the JRB self-tensioning guylines on my hammock tarp.) I’m upgrading some old tarp guylines to AirCore Pro Dyneema though, so I’ll be using rewoven figure-8s and the BPL cord locks with that.

Anchor bend to ursalight carabiner clipped to tarp, runs around stake and back to a tautline. Else bowline loops around biner and around stake.

I keep a loop from an overhand-on-a-bight on each end of the guyline. Attach with a girth hitch on the tarp end. Stake is usually straight through the other loop, but sometimes I’ll make a tautline.
-Mark

For the ridge lines and corners, I use the aircore pro cord and tensioners. I tie off with clove hitches.

Typically I have three or four short (fifteen inches or so) of aircore 2 with an overhand loop on each end). I use these as needed for side pullouts. They aren’t permanently attached to the tarp and I girth-hitch them when I think they will help. Usually I wrap the cord around a goodsized rock rather than actually stake them out, since the side pullouts need less tension than the corners or ridgeline — and I can still adjust them from under the tarp by simply moving the rock. The other thing I might do with those cord is use them as extenders for the corner tie-outs if the placement is awkward, where I tie them to the main cord with a double sheet bend and stake through the overhand loop.

I also usually carry and extra six or eight feet of aircore pro (or gossamer gear’s very similar EZC line) that I can use to extend the a tarp ridgeline around a really big tree.