New Edelrid Belay Device the " Pinch"

Cage fighting some euros in Squamish...

Oliunid had them in stock briefly back in May

Slim Pickens wrote:

A Canadian climbing shop I follow posted on insta this morning that they’ve got the pinch in stock. Anyone know of any available in the us yet?

How not 2 got a small shipment which is being used to fulfill some of his pre-orders.  They expect more fairly soon.

Micah Hoover wrote:

Cage fighting some euros in Squamish...

Oliunid had them in stock briefly back in May

Does it feed any better than a GG2 with a fat 9.8?

M M wrote:

Does it feed any better than a GG2 with a fat 9.8?

I've read it feeds worse than any variety of GriGri. If you want better feeding get the Neox. 

Haven't tried it with a 9.8 but it was worse with a 9.5 so extrapolating from that, definitely not.

So basically Caldwell will say anything for a buck now,  good to know. I fully trusted his social media ad and was going to give one a try...

M M wrote:

So basically Caldwell will say anything for a buck now,  good to know. I fully trusted his social media ad and was going to give one a try...

I wouldn't go that far, everyone has preferences. Some people think grigris are awful, infernal torture devices. Plenty swear by them. Just because this didn't ruffle my knickers like I'd hoped doesn't you won't think it's a sweet little device.

Micah Hoover wrote:

I wouldn't go that far, everyone has preferences. Some people think grigris are awful, infernal torture devices. Plenty swear by them. Just because this didn't ruffle my knickers like I'd hoped doesn't you won't think it's a sweet little device.

If it doesn't feed any better and all they did was steal another design and tweak it about 2% that would make it junk destined to live in a bin somewhere, plus I've always found grigri haters to be unreliable in almost all ways. 

M M wrote:

So basically Caldwell will say anything for a buck now,  good to know. I fully trusted his social media ad and was going to give one a try...

He made a series of posts a week back about how he went on a us aircraft carrier and the whole thing really inspired him that if all these good people could tough it out an aircraft carrier for months at a time to bring peace to the world, then by heck hes feeling pretty confident that we can lick climate change.

He claimed not to have been paid and later deleted the posts, but it seems like he’s pretty willing to spout bullshit for the right price. 

Anyone get one yet?

Brad Johnson wrote:

Anyone get one yet?

I snagged one from Backcountry while they were in stock, waiting for it to arrive. Looks like it's in stock at REI online. 

Is this the version with dual certification or just the climbing specific certification?

Thomas Worsham wrote:

Is this the version with dual certification or just the climbing specific certification?

I think they are only manufacturing the dual certified devices.

climber pat wrote:

I think they are only manufacturing the dual certified devices.

Could be true. I though I had heard that the dual certification was delayed due to some testing not being completed at the time of release. I will go and check their website to see what I can find.

Edit: I checked the Edelrid website and they have both EN-15151-1 and EN-12841-C listed in the technical details. Looks like it is fully certified for sport and access work. I will probably try to pick one up soon for work purposes.

So has anyone actually bought this thing?  

NEOX was flooded with reviews.  Crickets...

The Neox is super smooth feeding rope

I believe the reviews are limited because they simply haven’t been sold, at least in NA, through many distributors. I got mine off REI’s website while it was available for a day a few weeks ago.

My experience with it has been quite positive. Essentially, it’s a heavier, more durable steel grigri. It’s smaller, so subconsciously it feels heavier than it it’s because it’s more dense. I foresee that it will be more durable than the grigri plus, and even more so the regular version due to the steel construction. On the other hand, there is a piece of plastic plating that covers the button side which ends in a blunt tip. I dropped mine and it got a small scratch on said tip in the plastic. I would imagine that upon repeated abuse, this would break a little bit more, but hopefully it will be only aesthetic, but only time will tell.

I love being able to belay from above with 90 degree increment changes as well as belaying directly off my belay loop. The 4 inches that a carabiner takes up becomes quite noticeable when you factor in the vertical play of the device while lead belaying. Having the ability to pan out extra slack is certainly noticeable. Likewise, lead belaying is also insanely smooth. I feel like I would take this thing any day over the old standard grigri, it just feels pretty fluid.

Now at this point, I have only had one negative experience while using the pinch so far which was trying to hold the device while lowering. Granted, using a carabiner would negate this problem, but it’s somewhat of note so it’s worth mentioning. After lowering myself off a fixed line, followed by setting up a top rope and rigging my rappel device on the climbing rope, I found it quite difficult to take the device off and the rope out without feeling like it would be easy to drop. Maybe I’m just not used to it the devices muscle memory yet, but like I said a carabiner would solve this issue.

Overall, I think edelrid has once again done what they’re best at: redesigning products to push their limits beyond what other companies are capable of. I am sure I have decent sized bias towards edelrid in evaluating how much I enjoy this product, but the bias stems from me enjoying all their products more than competitors because they are almost always leagues better. In this case, I wouldn’t say that the pinch is leagues better, but I would say it’s probably better. I believe the grigri plus has its place for lead rope soloing and top rope guiding, the neox has its place for strictly lead belaying, but these products and the standard grigri might finally have a competitor in this market.  

Been following the development for a while, excited to get my hands on one and use it soon.

Orion -  What rope(s) were you using? I find it interesting you say it was super smooth for lead and smoother than a grigri as I had a very opposite experience. 

Ashley Harmening wrote:

Do you have any links/references to these tests?

  I apologize for the delayed reply - I wasn't able to find anything online to succinctly corroborate this summary, but my source was the owner of a well-known equipment manufacturer, who had described to me his visit to the Petzl factory, he thinks around 25 years ago. I texted him directly, and he confirmed that tests with persons stepping off a platform, with slack to the belayer directly in front of them, using an ATC or others of that style, could not be stopped, before they'd fall into the foam pit below. Only the Grigri and Munter successfully caught them, regardless of how hard the belayer tried to "brake," and this scenario is really only a factor one fall.
I knew people who'd caught extremely long falls, even using the hip belay, and suffered severe burns, and impact injuries like broken knee caps, that could have led to the failure of the belay. Modern devices absorb the dramatic forces so well that many have no idea how or where those forces are dissipated, and the fact that most falls are short, onto protection with a good bit of rope in the system, makes them feel trivial. But any weakness in the belay system can bring those forces into play, with serious results.