In reply to dinodinosaur:
Despite some of the usual reactionary rhetoric on here, I don't see "responsible" headpointing as an ethical issue, it's simply one of many different ways to climb a route. I tend to find that both styles offer quite different experiences; each with their own pro's and con's.
Although headpointing reduces the uncertainty, and therefore some of the risk and anxiety which most of us punters will associate with an onsight at the limit of our abilities, I don't "feel" as if I've climbed the route until I've achieved a clean free ascent.
One of the problems I've encountered with headpointing is being over or under rehearsed. Too much practice can lead to fatigue and failure, on the free attempt, or it can simply kill the whole excitement of the event and feel a bit empty. Too little practice and you can find yourself stranded and gripped in a life threatening situation with no solutions. On the positive side, the personal satisfaction of achieving a smooth and controlled ascent of a route at your absolute limit, after a few goes on the top rope, can be significantly greater than simply surviving the experience of scratching and flailing your way up the rock on a desperate onsight attempt.
So, because I like climbing to the best of my ability, value my life and limbs and don't have any desire to top rope routes which I have no intention of freeing and also because I object to adding avoidable wear and tear to the routes I climb, or hogging the routes which others might want to climb I have developed a loose set of personal guidelines which have worked pretty well for me up to now.
I'm not suggesting that these will work for you, but here they are:-
I will only top-rope routes which: a) are beyond my onsight limit, b) inspire me, c) which I believe I could get up cleanly after practice and d) don't have queues.
I will always rig the ropes carefully to avoid wearing out the top of the crag.
I will limit myself to 3 top rope attempts on my chosen route.
If I don't get it clean, within 3 attempts, it's too hard for me to consider a free ascent and I move on to something else.
What I've learned from this is:-
If I get it first go, I'm not trying hard enough!
If I get it second go, it might be on!
If I get it third go, it might not be on!
I will never never attempt a free ascent just based on the numbers, unless I'm feeling it; not even if Fiend is waving his enormous brass bollocks about the place
Happy Headpointing.