To
climb something "on sight" is simply to
climb it without having seen it before.
More strictly it is to climb something
for the first time. One may have spent
some time
looking at a
route. If one
completes the route on the first attempt then
one has managed an "on sight".
Some people feel that to climb
"on sight, ground up" is better than sex.
Certainly every move on the rock is unknown
and when the climb is a hard climb
this pushes one's ability to the edge,
hence the mental and physical rewards
upon completion are pretty good.
I guess that it depends on how hard you climb
and how much fun your sex life is.
Actually I have noticed that climbers who acquire
so's seem to spend less time climbing.
Climbers who are "hard-core" tend to be smelly unsociable
and spend all their time climbing. This might be
where the "on-sight-ground-up-better-than-sex" ethic
originated from.
It must be noted that to be a true on-sight
you must not have received any information
(beta as it is known) about the route from your friends.