Pinch

Grigri is the standard, but I really prefer the edelrid pinch. No need for a carabiner, closer to harness and less flopping around.

I’m just wondering if there is an official or best way of disengaging the cam as a lefty. here is an illustration from page 2 of the user manual. it does not get any more official than that, does it? and it is the best way in my experience. and there is a demonstration at 3:41 of this video by edelr

I like my Birdie ok. I like that it's straight-feed and not to the side like a Grigri. This helps to reduce rope kinks. But overall it was just easier for me to follow my path dependence on the Grigri. After using the Neox, I prefer this for lead belaying on single pitch. It's lovely. Kinks less but

In addition to what 0bsidian said, the vertical loop permits a bit more freedom of movement, as the leg loops and waist loop can float more independently of each other. In some ways, this harness design is a hold over from back in the day when leg loops were sold separately from waist loops (or supp

Grigri is good and the standard everyone knows. Grigri+ is super annoying - pays out slack worse and that panic-lock when lowering is a total pita. For smoother tube-style slack feeding I’d recommend the Edelrid Pinch - love how it’s closer to the harness, and handles a little more ATC-y than a Grig

Neox is basically the same as a Grigri but with a spinning thing in the middle to make feeding slack easier. More fun if you have an issue with the Grigri locking up all the time, but the extra price, clicking noise, and potential for a moving part to gum up and stop working properly would put me of

Not sure what you mean by "up and back". But the Pinch feeds better - and recommended by Edelrid - from the front rather than from the side. The live rope would still get in the way of trying to work the lever with your right hand though.

I think a lot of dislike for the grigri from people who originally learned to lead belay on an ATC comes from just not having enough practice with it to belay smoothly. I was a grigri hater for years (used an edelrid jul 2 as my ABD for a long time) and have switched to the grigri as of a couple yea