How to onsight

How personality traits and hangdogging can be leveraged to make you a better first-effort climber.

Onsighting is a practice, and there are tricks for improving. Here are nine steps that apply to both indoor and outdoor settings.

The classic mistake is to listen to your natural instinct to save yourself by jumping from an easy warm-up route onto your target onsight for the day.

Most climbers think that being good at onsighting means being good at improvising beta and hanging on for the ride. But the world's best don't just rely solely on improvisation: they map the route beforehand, from the ground.

Sure, onsighting involves putting yourself in a new and perhaps uncomfortable situations, but it's also a practice, and as such, there are tricks of the trade.