thumb|[[Kurt Albert climbing at the "Streitberger Schild" near Streitberg, Frankenjura, Germany, the place where he made the first Rotpunkt in 1975.

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. Unaided resting techniques such as the kneebar and the bat hang are allowed. However, due to additional significant challenge of placing climbing protection while ascending traditional climbing routes, traditional climbers continue to differentiate between 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.

Comparisons

The unlimited practice 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. 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.

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. Notable examples include Austrian climber '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, and of East Face (Monkey Face) (5.13d R, 2004) at Smith Rocks.

Projecting

Repeatedly trying to make a redpoint ascent of a route can take place over any length of time, from hours to years (i.e. any time, once the initial onsight or flash attempt 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. 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).

The term projecting is most commonly used in bouldering, where in addition, the completion of a bouldering route is rarely called a 'redpoint' but instead the boulderer is usually deemed to have 'solved' the route in the manner of it being akin to a short technical problem.

Etymology

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 in 1975. Albert got the idea for the "red dot" from the logo and name of a brand of German coffee and kettle maker.

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. 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.

As of January 2026, the world's hardest redpointed routes are Silence by Adam Ondra, DNA by Seb Bouin, B.I.G. by Jakob Schubert, and Duality of Man by Sean Bailey which are all at a proposed grade of , however, none of these new routes have been repeated. As of June 2025, one female climber, Brooke Raboutou, has redpointed an established route just one grade point lower at , with her 2025 ascent of Excalibur.

See also

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

References

  • What is a flash in climbing?, HardClimbs (2023)
  • What is an onsight in climbing?, HardClimbs (2023)
  • Redpoint vs Pinkpoint vs Headpoint, HardClimbs (2023)
  • Watch Alex Megos Red Point Film Rotpunkt, a 2020 film by Alex Megos on the history of the "Rotpunkt" (Gripped Magazine, February 2020).