Did I on-sight?

Nathanael wrote: dynamic downclimbing to regain it (a jump).

Haha awesome!

I'd count it as on OS.
If that were to happen to me I would giggle for like 5 minutes before I continued to climb. I think it'd be similar as when I do a last ditch throw to a sloppy rail that turns out to be incut and you surprisingly don't fall off. Lots of weird shit happen in climbing.

If it really bothers you, call it on DOS ( Dynamic On Sight).

lore is inhabited by a tale of John Gill (yes, that John Gill) doing the free-solo, onsight, first ascent of Gill's Crack. It's said that during this attempt (in the 50's and wearing boots!) he fell from the 10c crux to the slab that forms the base of the route (roughly a 20-footer or so) where he quite-nimbly caught himself. Legend maintains that, without returning to the ground, he quickly gathered his nerve and cast off again for the crux, which he deftly negotiated before completing the route. To this day he is credited with the free-solo, onsight, first ascent.

I think we can take two major things from this little parable:
1. Eric Stern - if it's good enough for John Gill, then it's good enough for you - update your 8a.nu scorecard accordingly.
2. WE ARE ALL LIGHT compared to John Gill.

You definitely onsighted. You can go up and down something (downclimbing, small scid like yours, etc.) but if you didn't weight the rope, it counts.

yet another fantastic reminder what a bunch of dorky douches the climbing community is.

Holy hell.

Eric Stern wrote:I was climbing Thin Fingers at Index for the first time and I had just gotten up to the crux. My foot ended up cutting and I fell back down to the ledge two feet below without weighting the rope. Afterwards I stuck the crux and clipped the chains without falling. So did I on-sight the climb?

Regardless of what you call it, nice work. Awesome route amirite?

grog m wrote:You can't "onsight" on top rope. Im assuming since you said you didnt weight the rope you were top roping. You gotta lead it to call it an onsight.

On-sight
A clean ascent, with no prior practice or beta. For ascents on the first attempt with receiving beta see flash.

I would say as long as you did not weight the rope you can call it an on-sight. It just depends on what you on-sighted. Did you on-sight sport version of the route? on-sighted trad version of the route? on-sighted a variation of the route (due to going around a section)? on-sighted top rope version of the route? on-sighted aid version of a route?

All on-sight refers to is climbing a route without ever being on it / getting beta.

Method of climbing is different from the type of climbing.

WRONG. IF YOU DIDNT LEAD IT, DONT CALL IT AN ONSIGHT.

Gary N wrote:If you have to ask...

I think this is exactly right. It sounds to me like the op is having his doubts about the style of the ascent, so that's a pretty clear indicator that it wasn't a clean ascent in HIS OWN value system, which is the only thing that matters (except for all the other stuff that matters, like local laws and climbing ethics, damaging the rock, etc).

I'd say yes (unless you were on TR) just because the rope did not affect you in any way, ie you would have soloed it if you weren't tied in. Although the phrase "downward dyno" is slightly sketchy, in my opinion it's not a fall.