Red point
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- See Red Point for places and geographical features of that name.
In climbing the term red pointing is derived from the German term rotpunkt (point of red) coined by Kurt Albert in the mid 70's at Frankenjura. He would paint a red x on a fixed pin that he could avoid using for a foot or hand hold. Once he was able to Free Climb the entire route. He would put a red dot at the base of the route. In many ways this was the origin of the free climbing movement that led to the development of sport climbing ten years later.
Traditional climbing ethics require that all the protective gear be placed on lead.
Modern Sport climbing ethics consider it a red point if you successfully climb a route to the top without using or weighting the gear or rope, preplaced quickdraws are allowed. This was formerly known as a pink point.
Also, compare to flash.