Redpoint (climbing)

When a climber attempts to redpoint a climbing route, it doesn't matter how many times that they have previously failed on the route, and/or whether they have practised any or all of the individual movements on the route, and/or whether they conducted any prior inspections of the route to learn its beta (e.g. by abseil).

If the climber falls during an attempted redpoint ascent, and thus ends up in a position of hanging from their rope (i.e. their bodyweight is being held — even partly — by the rope), then they must return to the bottom of the climbing route, pull their rope free of the route (i.e. free it from any climbing protection), and completely re-start their ascent from scratch. The process of pulling the rope free before re-starting is also known as "climbing a route clean", but it should not be confused with the broader topic of clean climbing.{{cite web | magazine=Climber (Magazine) | url=https://www.climbernews.com/what-is-free-climbing/ | title=What Is Free Climbing? – Rock Climbing's Most Commonly Mistaken Term | date=11 April 2021 | accessdate=9 February 2023}}{{cite book|title=Sport Climbing +|first= Adrian |last=Berry|edition=1|publisher=Rockfax Ltd|year=2006|isbn=1-873341-86-5}}

Climbers can pause and rest during a redpoint ascent but they cannot use the rope, or any other artificial aids, to hold their bodyweight while they rest — completely unaided techniques such as the kneebar and the bat hang are allowed. The term hangdogging is where the climber rests on the rope after falling but then restarts climbing without returning to the ground, which is not a redpoint. The first climber to redpoint a route, in the absence of any prior onsight or flash of a route, has made the first free ascent (FFA) of that route.

Where quickdraws are pre-placed into the fixed protection bolts on sport climbing routes, so that climber is just clipping the rope into the quickdraws as they ascend, it is called a "pinkpoint" — in practice, most ascents of extreme sport climbing routes are done as pinkpoints, as are ascents in modern competition climbing, so the term "pinkpoint" is no longer used in these instances.{{cite magazine | magazine=Climber (Magazine) | url=https://www.climbernews.com/what-is-a-redpoint-in-climbing/ | title=What Is A Redpoint In Climbing? – Climbing Jargon Explained | date=2 October 2020 | accessdate=1 January 2022}}{{cite book|title=Traditional Lead Climbing: A Rock Climber's Guide to Taking the Sharp End of the Rope|first= Heidi |last=Pesterfield|edition=2|publisher=Wilderness Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-89997-442-2}} However, due to additional significant challenge of placing climbing protection while ascending traditional climbing routes, traditional climbers continue to differentiate on whether their first free ascent was a pinkpoint (e.g. as Swiss traditional climber Didier Berthod did on making the first ascent of The Crack of Destiny in 2023) or a full redpoint.{{cite web | magazine=Climbing |url=https://www.climbing.com/news/didier-berthod-first-ascent-5-14-crack-squamish/ | title=Didier Berthod Returns to Climbing Limelight With FA of 5.14 Crack | first=Nat | last=Bailey | date=10 July 2023 | accessdate=15 September 2023}}

The unlimited practicing that is allowed before making a redpoint ascent contrasts with the historical aversion to "headpointing" (i.e. practicing the route on a toprope beforehand) in traditional climbing. In the early 1980s, redpointing was therefore a term largely exclusive to sport climbing. While headpointing was then considered a lesser form of first free ascent in traditional climbing (and an FFA that was headpointed would be asterisked as such),{{cite web | website=UKClimbing | date=15 January 2019 | accessdate=20 September 2023 | first=Franco | last=Cookson | title=Franco Cookson's Guide to Headpointing | url=https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/franco_cookson/franco_cooksons_guide_to_headpointing-11593}} leading traditional climbers eventually followed the redpointing practices of the sport climbers, and by the 2000s, had largely dispensed with the stigma associated with headpointing.{{cite web | magazine=Climbing | url=https://www.climbing.com/places/history-headpointing-peak-district-gritstone/ | title=How the World's Boldest Climbing Area Got that Way: How headpointing became a legitimate, go-to tactic on Peak District gritstone | first=Mike | last=Huttom | date=3 November 2022 | accessdate=13 February 2023}}

From about the 2010s, traditional climbers were using the derived term "greenpoint" (or the Grünpunkt, as a play on the Rotpunkt), to describe climbing a pre-bolted sport-climb, but only using "traditional protection" (i.e. climbing protection that is not permanently fixed via pre-placed bolts or pitons); as with redpointing, the climber may have repeatedly practiced falling on the “traditional protection” before making their greenpoint ascent.{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/heiko-queitsch-greenpoint-climbing-in-the-frankenjura.html | title=Heiko Queitsch greenpoint climbing in the Frankenjura | date=3 August 2012 | accessdate=22 December 2022}}{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/chasin-the-trane-greenpoint-in-the-frankenjura.html | date=7 November 2011 | accessdate=22 December 2022 | title=Chasin the Trane greenpoint in the Frankenjura | quote=Greenpoint? OK redpoint, even pinkpoint is tried and tested (i.e. with gear already pre-placed). But greenpoint? Ay yes, it's the term used to define climbing a sport route without the bolts but using trad gear such as nuts and camming devices! What might at first glance seem somewhat contorted is in fact a movement that is gaining popularity.}} Notable examples include Austrian climber {{ill|Beat Kammerlander|de}}'s greenpoint of Prinzip Hoffnung (5.14a R, 2009) in Bürs in Austria, and Canadian Sonnie Trotter's greenpoint of The Path (5.14a R, 2007) in Lake Louise, Alberta,{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/sonnie-trotter-finds-the-path-514-r-at-lake-louise-alberta-canada.html | title=Sonnie Trotter finds The Path 5.14 R at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada | date=23 August 2007 | accessdate=8 February 2023}}{{cite web |last=Lambert |first=Erik|date=31 August 2007 |title=Trotter Chops Bolts, Sends Marathon Project|url=http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP20/newswire-trotter-path-bolt-chop |access-date=8 February 2023|magazine=Alpinist}} and of East Face (Monkey Face) (5.13d R, 2004) at Smith Rocks.{{cite web | magazine=Climbing | url=https://www.climbing.com/news/trotter-cleans-up-monkey-face/ | title=Trotter Cleans Up Monkey Face | date=27 April 2004 | first=Dougald | last=McDonald | accessdate=8 February 2023}}{{cite web | magazine=Gripped Magazine | url=https://gripped.com/news/mike-doyle-trad-climbs-east-face-monkey-face-5-13d/ | title=Mike Doyle Trad Climbs East Face of Monkey Face 5.13d | date=31 May 2018 | accessdate=8 February 2023}}

Repeatedly attempting a redpoint can take place over any length of time, from hours to years (i.e. any time, once the initial onsight or flash has failed). Climbers use the term projecting to denote a longer-term project to complete the FFA, or their own personal first ascent, of a route that is at the limit of their abilities.{{cite web | magazine=Climbing | url=https://www.climbing.com/skills/projecting-tips/?itm_source=parsely-api | title=Tips for Successful Projecting (Even When Things Turn South) | first=Lucie | last=Hanes | date=11 October 2022 | accessdate=9 February 2023}}{{cite web | magazine=Climbing | url=https://www.climbing.com/skills/five-mistakes-we-all-make-while-projecting/ | title=Five Mistakes We All Make While Projecting | first=Delaney| last=Miller | date=22 December 2022 | accessdate=9 February 2023}} The redpoint FFA of many of contemporary sport climbing routes, particularly those that involved breaking new grade milestones, took years, and even decades, to project (e.g. Realization, La Dura Dura, and Jumbo Love).

Bouldering climbers also use the terms onsight and flash in relation to ascents of boulder problems, they mostly use the term projecting — instead of the term redpointing — when discussing longer-term attempts of FFAs or personal first ascents.{{cite web | magazine=Gripped Magazine | url=https://gripped.com/profiles/late-season-projecting-and-maximizing-fall-climbing/ | title=Late Season Projecting and Maximizing Fall Climbing | first=Noah | last=Walker | date=31 August 2022 | accessdate=9 February 2023}}

The English term "redpoint" is a loan translation of the German Rotpunkt that was coined by Kurt Albert in the mid-1970s at Frankenjura. Albert would paint a red "X" on any fixed metal pitons on a rock climbing route so that he could avoid using them while climbing, thus not using any artificial aid. Once Albert was able to free-climb the entire route, and avoid all the red "X"s, he would then paint a red "dot" (the "Roter Punkt") at the base of the route. His first Rotpunkt was the aid climbing route Adolf-Rott-Gedächtnis-Weg (V+/A1) at the Streitberger Schild crag in the Frankenjura, which he freed at {{climbing grade|6a+}} in 1975.{{cite web | magazine=UKClimbing Magazine | url=https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/literature/coffee_and_giants_the_dawn_of_the_redpoint-14833 | date=29 November 2022 | accessdate=22 December 2022 | title=Coffee and Giants: The Dawn of the Redpoint | first=Andrew | last=Hannan}} Albert got the idea for the "red dot" from the logo and name of a brand of German coffee and kettle maker. To achieve a Rotpunkt, Albert additionally defined that if a climber fell during the ascent, they had to return to the base, pull the rope free, and re-start the climb from scratch (i.e. as if the climber had only just approached it).{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/kurt-albert-is-dead-goodbye-to-a-climbing-legend.html | title=Kurt Albert is dead. Goodbye to a climbing legend | first=Nicholas | last=Hobley | date=29 October 2010 | accessdate=21 December 2022}}{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/remembering-kurt-albert-german-climbing-legend-father-of-redpoint.html | title=Remembering Kurt Albert, German climbing legend and father of the redpoint | first=Nicholas | last=Hobley | date=28 September 2020 | accessdate=21 December 2022}}

The connotation spread of a "redpoint" being a route that had to be repeatedly attempted because it was so hard – which is why metal pitons had been hammered into the rock as an aid in the first place – until it could be climbed in one clean push (i.e. no falls, and any falls required a full re-start), and without any artificial aids.{{cite web | magazine=Gripped Magazine | url=https://gripped.com/profiles/redpoint-pinkpoint-and-headpoint-what-do-they-mean/ | title=Redpoint, Pinkpoint, and Headpoint – What Do They Mean? | first=Aaron | last=Pardy | date=5 November 2022 | accessdate=21 December 2022}} Because these routes were already established aid climbing routes, Albert could not remove the pitons (that would happen in later decades), however, his Rotpunkt laid down a mark to other climbers that the route could be free climbed without the use of the metal aids, and thus became an important moment in the development of free climbing. Eventually, Albert's Rotpunkte became associated with the development of sport climbing in the 1980s, as many of these aids were on routes that had no possibility of even natural traditional climbing protection (e.g. no cracks), and thus bolts would be needed for protection (but not aid).

{{Main|List of grade milestones in rock climbing#Redpointed by men | List of grade milestones in rock climbing#Redpointed by women}}

Notable redpointed climbs are chronicled by the climbing media to track progress in rock climbing standards and levels of technical difficulty; in contrast, the hardest traditional climbing routes tend to be of lower technical difficulty due to the additional burden of having to place protection during the course of the climb, and due to the lack of any possibility of using natural protection on extreme sport climbs.{{cite magazine | magazine=eMontana (Czech) | url=http://stara.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/ | title=Climbing Milestones. Explore the Revolutionary Routes from 6a to 9c | date=2018 | accessdate=31 December 2021 | first1=Matej | last1=Pohorsky}}

As of May 2024, the world's hardest redpointed routes are Silence by Adam Ondra, {{interlanguage link|DNA (climb)|lt=DNA |de|DNA (Kletterroute)}} by Seb Bouin, and B.I.G. by Jakob Schubert, which are all at a proposed grade of {{climbing grade|9c}}, and none of which have been repeated.{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/interviews/jakob-schubert-proposes-9c-for-big-at-flatanger.html | date=28 September 2023 | accessdate=28 September 2023 | title=Jakob Schubert proposes 9c for B.I.G. at Flatanger}} As of May 2024, four female climbers Angela Eiter, Laura Rogora, Julia Chanourdie, and Anak Verhoeven have redpointed established routes at the grade of {{climbing grade|9b}}.{{cite web | website=PlanetMountain | url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/anak-verhoven-sends-planta-de-shiva-9b-villanueva-del-rosario-spain.html | title=Anak Verhoven sends Planta de Shiva (9b) at Villanueva del Rosario in Spain | date=16 May 2024 | accessdate=16 May 2024}}

• Beta (climbing)
• History of rock climbing
• List of grade milestones in rock climbing

{{reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|redpoint}}

• [https://hardclimbs.info/what-is-a-flash-in-climbing/ What is a flash in climbing?], HardClimbs (2023)
• [https://hardclimbs.info/what-is-onsight-climbing-meaning/ What is an onsight in climbing?], HardClimbs (2023)
• [https://hardclimbs.info/redpoint-vs-pinkpoint-vs-headpoint/ Redpoint vs Pinkpoint vs Headpoint], HardClimbs (2023)
• [https://gripped.com/indoor-climbing/watch-alex-megos-red-point-film-rotpunkt/ Watch Alex Megos Red Point Film Rotpunkt], a 2020 film by Alex Megos on the history of the "Rotpunkt" (Gripped Magazine, February 2020).

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