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Difference between flash, red point, pink point, ect?

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Billy Uhlhorn · · California · Joined Aug 2023 · Points: 2

New climber here and I'm wondering what the the difference between these all is. Thank you.

Connor Hale · · California · Joined Feb 2022 · Points: 4

You can google it

Will Myers · · Golden · Joined Oct 2019 · Points: 11

This is a flash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHOl0wZrMvk

Red pointing is when a trad climber leads something they have climbed before.

Pink pointing is when a sport climber leads something they have climbed before, or when a trad climber climbs something with preplaced gear.

Caleb BR · · Landis, NC · Joined Sep 2018 · Points: 55

Red Point: to lead a pitch without weighting the rope, either on bolts or gear or any combination. This is the gold standard for a "send" in rock climbing on ropes. 

Flash: to red point a route having never tried it before with prior beta on the route. This beta can be anything about the route or the gear or any combination, but it cannot come from trying any of the moves. 

Onsite: to red point a route having never tried it before with no prior knowledge of the route other than what can be discerned from the ground under the climb. Adam Ondra (currently recognized as the best all-around climber in the world) has his own rules about what constitutes an onsite, such as no binoculars, no spotting from a tree, ect. 

Pink Point: to red point a trad route with the gear pre-placed. This is really only a thing when climbing a gear-protected route, where someone else or yourself has pre-placed some or all of the gear. 

Head point: to red point a very difficult "no falls" route that you have previously worked on top rope, where the difficulty lies less in the physical difficultly of the climbing, and much more in the lack of good gear on route, meaning that a fall on lead would probably result in injury or death. This is more of a thing in British trad climbing. 

Camdon Kay · · Idaho · Joined Mar 2021 · Points: 3,521

Onsight - Clean lead on your first attempt with no beta/knowledge about the pitch.
Flash - Clean lead on your first attempt, but with beta/knowledge about the pitch.
Redpoint - Clean lead, but it is not your first attempt. If the pitch has gear placements, you place the gear yourself.
Pinkpoint - Clean lead, but it is not your first attempt and you climbed the pitch on preplaced gear.

Most people consider a clean lead of a sport route on pre-hung draws to be a redpoint, rather than a pinkpoint. Hanging the draws on lead is often considered more challenging/better style, however. 

Drederek · · Olympia, WA · Joined Mar 2004 · Points: 315
Camdon Kay wrote:

Most people consider a clean lead of a sport route on pre-hung draws to be a redpoint, rather than a pinkpoint. Hanging the draws on lead is often considered more challenging/better style, however. 

Which is where pink point came from, almost a red point. 

Camdon Kay · · Idaho · Joined Mar 2021 · Points: 3,521

Brownpoint - A lead where you get really scared and shit your pants, even just a little bit. 

No Face · · Yubaba's bathhouse · Joined Jul 2020 · Points: 1

I thought a Brownpoint was a top rope redpoint, because it doesn't mean shit...

Tronsite - top rope onsight

Trash - top rope flash 

Jason4Too · · Bellingham, Washington · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 0

I originally was taught Flash and Onsight backwards from what is typically used in the US and even included "beta flash" which was explained as being similar to "onsight" but with less beta (someone might tell you about a key hold or something but not a lot of details and no photos/video).  "Onsight" was explained as being able to look at a route or problem, study it in detail without touching it, watch videos or look at photos, etc, anything but touch.  "Flash" was explained as walking up to a route or problem, getting the briefest look at it (just a flash really!) and then sending it without any other info.  The way these terms are commonly used just doesn't make any sense to me after learning them the way I did.  I learned this in a Dutch bouldering gym that was the home gym for some high level competition boulderers.

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