Is working highballs on rope first legit?

Jens: I agree, you can't onsight something you have beta for, whether it's in the form of personal inspection, or beta from someone else's experience... I was just confused by your previous post when you said " I do not think you could flash something you have looked from above. Check #11 on the 8a ethic article. "  Is it possible you meant onsight? I personally see no difference between rappelling over a route without touching the holds, and someone describing the holds move for move to me... or seeing a problem our route done in a video... I feel this: Onsight: NO Beta, no inspection. Flash: any beta from any source, without touching holds or trying any moves. But this of course is a grey area... Jens, to you, what is the difference between onsight and flash? -D

Climbers are always pushing the ethics as they would like to climb as hard as possible. I am afraid that if inspection through rappelling on routes that you plan to flash would be OK, we would just start to see same strange things going on. Climb an easy route and then traverse to the flash project and than climb. The climbing ethics should be based on what seems natural and further more what would be fun to do.

I think I will have to disagree with you Jens. I think your way of thinking has it's place, and for me that place is more for the onsight mindset than the flash mindset.... It's an interesting debate though. What do you think of this Jens: I'm going to castle hill, and while I'm there I plan on attempting to flash "Beautiful Edges" V4. Problem is, I've seen it numerous times in the video Big Game. I haven't rappelled the route, looked at the holds, or have even seen the boulder in real life, but I have seen a few people DO the problem in the video. In your opinion, does that allow me a flash attempt or no? -D