Pinch

This question comes up twice a year, every year, probably based on course schedules. Climbing gear, especially belay devices, are pretty much optimized. Edelrid spent lots of time and money with people with decades of experience designing climbing gear and was able to make the pinch, which by popula

a lot of rope twisting can be avoid by keeping the rope path in one plane. all grigri style belay devices i know apply this improvement except for the grigri itself for unknown reasons. they are the edelrid pinch, the camp matik, the mad rock lifeguard, and the beal birdie.

If you only ever plan to do single pitch climbing with anchor hardware, it's fine. Very similar to the Ederlid Jul2, Ocun Bow, and Mammut Smart. However Petzl Grigri or Edelrid Pinch are better at locking off the rope if your partner is projecting and hanging lots, or if you have a weight difference

You shouldn’t have any issue with a top belay from a reverso if you’re using it properly in guide mode. A grigri or an edelrid pinch both are pretty good but they are heavy and only work with single ropes

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

If you use an edelrid pinch, it automatically will lower super smooth for you

personally, i do not mind spending the money on thin ropes like the edelrid kinglet 9.2mm. under these circumstances and especially when you prefer belaying tube style, the combination of the edelrid pinch and a rope diameter below 9.5 mm is the best belaying experience i know. and i know many. even

Love the edelrid pinch especially that it doesn't twist the rope and the rope bearing surfaces are steel. But it sucks at top belay with skinny ropes.

HowNOT2 published a long, detailed, and entertaining discussion of the Edelrid Pinch with Tommy Caldwell 2 months ago. i have had the pinch for a while now and for me it is definitely the better device. everything about it seems to be just as good as the grigri and then there are some parts better t

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