Onsight ethics

For what ever it's worth...

Truly, "onsighting" is pretty special, especially when it's at your limit...

Personally,  some of my proudest sends were of the infamous  "Bad Beta Flash" type...

You know, your belayer and ground chorus spraying "bad beta(tm)" at you while you fight your way up a route you've never been on.

And since it's at your limit,  you can't spare the energy tell them  to STFU...

ed "is a "'bad beta 5.12a' really equivalent to a 5.13a?" e

Jon Frisby wrote:

While I agree with you, I would probably not climb with you if I observed this exchange. 

Because you only climb with people that share your world view and agree to boost your ego regardless of their own personal ethical stance ?  I’d still climb with you, but somehow I don’t think the reverse would apply. 

Onsight is no beta even if it is the first hold! Definitions do matter.

I personally don’t count it an onsight unless I send a rig first try on a bad day. Like, hungover-back hurt-heartburn-sleep-deprived bad day.  If you send first go on a low gravity day, that’s just an unfair advantage. 

Ethics seems like a strong word for saying you sent something without seeing the beta as opposed to just sending it anyway... like it's unethical to claim onsight if you saw someone climb it. Did you send it, or didn't you? Is it at the limit of what you can do, or not? Again, for high-level professional climbing I know that distinction between redpoint and onsight can be so important, but for us mortals, you either sent it or didn't. That's the ethics, don't tick what you didn't do