Key takeaways
- To 'send' means to climb a route or problem cleanly — no falls, no weighting the rope or gear.
- A 'send' is a clean, successful ascent; 'sending' is doing so.
- It covers any clean ascent style (onsight, flash, or redpoint).
- It's ubiquitous climbing slang, often shouted as encouragement ('Send it!').
Climbing slang, popularly linked to 'send it' / sending a route.
What ‘send’ means
To ‘send’ is climbing slang for successfully climbing a route or boulder problem cleanly — from start to finish, without falling and without resting on the rope or gear. A ‘send’ is that clean, successful ascent, and ‘sending’ is the act of doing it. It’s one of the most widely used words in modern climbing.
Any clean ascent counts
‘Send’ is a general term — it doesn’t specify how you climbed it. An onsight, a flash, and a redpoint are all sends; the word just means you completed the climb cleanly, regardless of how much beta you had or how many tries it took.
After working a hard route over several sessions, a climber finally links it bottom to top with no falls — they ‘sent’ it. Their belayer and friends cheer ‘Nice send!’, the everyday celebration of a clean ascent.
The culture
The term is famously tied to the rallying cry ‘Send it!’ — shouted to encourage a climber to commit and finish. A strong climber might even be called a ‘sender.’ Whatever the style, if you sent it, you climbed it clean.
The bottom line
To 'send' is to climb a route or problem cleanly — no falls, no weighting gear — and a 'send' is that clean ascent. It's the catch-all word for success regardless of style (onsight, flash, or redpoint) and one of the most-used terms in climbing, immortalized in the rallying cry 'Send it!' If you sent it, you climbed it clean.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'send' mean in climbing?
To send a route or boulder problem means to climb it cleanly from start to finish — without falling and without resting on the rope or gear. A 'send' is a successful, clean ascent. It's one of the most common pieces of climbing slang, used for any clean completion of a climb.
Does a 'send' refer to a specific ascent style?
No — 'send' is a general term for any clean ascent, regardless of whether it was an onsight (first try, no beta), a flash (first try, with beta), or a redpoint (after practice). All of those are sends. The word describes the clean completion itself, not how much you knew or how many tries it took.
Where does the term 'send' come from?
It's climbing slang that became hugely popular, often associated with the encouraging phrase 'send it!' — yelled to motivate a climber to commit and complete a route. Over time 'send' became the everyday verb for successfully climbing something cleanly, and 'sender' even describes a strong climber.
Sources
- Climbing terminology — American Alpine Club
- Climbing culture — UIAA