Red point

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

See Red Point for places and geographical features of that name.

See RedPoint for the alcoholic beverage.

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 do not consider it a red point if you successfully climb a route on toprope without using or weighting the gear or rope, though leading with preplaced quickdraws is allowed in some circles. Leading with pre-placed draws is also referred to as a pink point.

Also, compare to flash.