Onsight, Flash, and Redpoint – Defined

For many, the goal of sport and trad climbing is to successfully send a climb. By send, I mean leading the route from bottom to top without falls, takes, or pulling on gear. This sounds straightforward, but there are quite a few different approaches or styles to achieving a send.

You’ve likely heard of these—onsight, flash, and redpoint—but it’s understandable to be a little unclear about what’s exactly involved in each one, especially if you’re a newer climber. Redpointing itself has a few sub-categories—pinkpoint and headpoint—which can also add to the complexity. To clear up any confusion, let’s go through each of these send types one by one.

Onsight

Onsighting is one of the most satisfying styles of roped climbing. A climber achieves an onsight when they send a route in their first attempt with no prior knowledge about the climb. What exactly qualifies as “no prior knowledge” however, can be tricky. Most climbers agree that the following disqualify the onsight:

• Watching someone climb the route
• Watching a video of someone climbing the route
• Receiving beta for any part of the route
• Previously climbing portions of the route (like when the route shares a section with another route you’ve already climbed)
• Sussing out the route by inspecting or touching holds (such as when lowering from another route, rappelling, or jugging up a fixed line)

Value judgements must be made about whether an onsight may have be violated by other factors. Examples could include overly detailed guidebook route descriptions (e.g. “Watch out for the crux at the fifth bolt, and don’t forget to kneebar), or guidebook photos depicting the crux sequence. And then there’s tick marks. We’ve all lunged for holds we otherwise wouldn’t have had they not been covered in bright, chalky dashes.

Some climbers argue there are even more stipulations. These purists believe that for a true onsight, there must be no gear on the wall, including permadraws, quickdraws, or even bolts, as these indicate the direction of the route. There must also be no chalk stains on the wall as these may inform the climber about the climbing sequence. The climber must also not know the route’s grade as this provides information about the difficulty of the moves.

These additional requirements are often impossible to satisfy at modern crags. It’s safe to say that when most climbers are talking about onsighting, they are referring to the “rules” in the bulleted list above. However, additional nit-picky details might be worth consideration depending on the situation—especially if you’re feeling a tad guilty about that ticked hold or beta-spraying guidebook.

Flash

To flash a route a climber must send the climb in their first attempt, just as in onsighting. What makes a flash different from an onsight is that the climber can have prior knowledge before setting off on the climb. It doesn’t matter if the climber has a little bit of information or a lot, it’s still a flash. Therefore, if you’re really keen on flashing a specific route, try to gather as much information about it as possible. Watch people climb the route. Study videos. Talk to your friends about their beta including important holds, rests, and body positions.

There are still a few things that would be considered bad form when claiming a flash. These include previously climbing sections of the route (like when the route shares moves with a different climb you’ve already climbed) and sussing out holds while lowering, rappelling, or jugging a fixed line. If you’ve already previously climbed a portion of the line when climbing a different route, that also disqualifies the flash.

Redpoint

A climber achieves a redpoint when they send a route after their first attempt. It doesn’t matter if it was the second go or the 200^th, it’s still a redpoint. Redpointing can be as simple as sending a climb a few minutes after a failed first attempt. Or, when climbing at your physical or technical limits, it can be as complex as projecting the route for weeks, months, or even years. In the lead up to a successful redpoint, a climber can rehearse the route over and over again, dialing in movement, crux beta, resting positions, and gear placements.

The term “redpoint” is an odd one. It’s not immediately clear how “red” or “point” relate to the climbing style I’ve just described above. It’s a bit of a long story, but briefly “Redpoint” comes from the German word rotpunkt, which was originally used by Kurt Albert in Frankenjura in the 1970s. After an aid route had been freeclimbed while placing gear on lead without falls or takes, Albert and his crew would paint a little red dot at the base of the route. This was called the rotpunkt, or redpoint, and was a signal to other climbers that a route had been climbed in this particular style.

Pinkpoint

Traditionally, a redpoint was only achieved if the climber placed all pieces of protection while sending the route. On a sport route, this would mean placing all your own quickdraws. The term pinkpoint gained some traction in the 1990s and early 2000s to describe when a route was sent with pre-placed quickdraws or gear.

As you may have noticed, the use of the term pinkpoint is becoming increasingly rare. While it definitely makes routes more difficult when you hang your own draws, the presence of permadraws and project draws at many sport crags have eliminated this red/pink distinction. In modern sport climbing, it’s now the norm to climb a route with quickdraws pre-hung and still claim the redpoint. The term still has some value in trad climbing where a climber may lead a difficult route with gear pre-placed, perhaps on their way to eventually redpointing the line.

Headpoint

Headpointing describes a specific approach to redpointing. It’s typically applied to potentially dangerous trad climbs, but it could also be used for run-out or spicy sport climbs. In headpointing, a climber rehearses the route with the safety of a top-rope, dialing in the moves and gear placements. When the climber eventually goes on the sharp end and sends the route, the climber achieves a redpoint. But the climber can say that they approached the route in headpoint style.

The decision to headpoint a climb is a personal one. Everyone has a different risk tolerance so one person’s headpoint could be another’s redpoint (with no top-roping), flash, or even onsight.