ATC

Most of the comments thus far aren’t aware of the differences between a standard ATC, and an ATC Pilot. You can’t go wrong with a grigri or Pilot but the Pilot is the better option for most first devices IMO. Unless you’re gifting it to someone. My recommendation is not as a former Black Diamond rep

I’m a small person who often belays larger ones. I found the ATC a little too unforgiving, so I switched to a Black Diamond Pilot. Way cheaper than a grigi. The shape of the device gives you a clear, simple way to control the rope’s max speed alongside your brake hand. I use a Neox now (a lead-centr

Oh my God, I had this bullshit happen in real life. I was ice climbing (well, top-roping in the Ouray Ice Park) with my wife belaying me. Long story short, some dude walks by and accuses her of having an unsafe belay. In reality, she was properly using a BD ATC, but he insisted BD stopped selling th

or Black Diamond ATC Pilot. (the edelrid one is called the "Jul") Any of the mentioned devices will be a great upgrade from a basic ATC style, both in usability as well as safety.

I’m small relative to many people I belay, at times at the level of the difference you’re taking about. I’ve never had any issues with safety on TR (with chain and steel ring anchors), mostly just with ease of lowering. My ATC was the worst and most annoying, the Black Diamond Pilot was much better

If you weren’t having issues with an ATC, then I’d recommend switching to a different belay device. I use the Black Diamond Pilot, and I personally think it’s much better than a grigri! It’s much more intuitive, easier to feed rope, and in my (controversial) option is safer.

I still feel like I can’t give enough slack out quickly enough with a gri gri and I’ve been climbing for 10 years. I’m not tall and my arms aren’t long so when my climber clips high I struggle to get the rope out quick. I use the black diamond pilot or the mammut smart. They act a lot more like a st

It appears that it's from a small company in Australia: https://cowellengineering.com.au/products/slow-go-pulley It does specify design loads on the image here and says it satisfies EN 12572 which appears to be a standard for climbing equipment. But I couldn't find anything on their site, they have