In 1989 Petzl’s technical director, Peter Popall, looked down, beyond the tiny footholds, to see his 10-year-old son belaying perfectly: brake hand firmly on the rope, neck craned up, attentive. But would his little hands and arms really be able to arrest a fall? This troubling thought led Popall to explore a safe way for children to belay adults. Petzl already manufactured a caving descender with a cam-based locking mechanism, called the Stop. With the Stop as a model, Popall, along with Alain Maurice and Fernand Petzl, designed and produced the Grigri, the world’s first – and still most popular – locking-assist belay device. It was introduced in 1991 and is now in the hands of not only most sport climbers around the world, but many trad junkies and big-wall rats as well.

The Grigri (and most locking-assist belay devices) operates like a seat-belt: rope feeds slowly through the device, but a shock load, such as a falling climber, activates the internal cam, which stops the rope from feeding through. The Grigri is a spring-loaded cam assembly mounted between a back plate and a swinging front plate, a cam-release handle, and a plastic spine between the plates. Both plates, loosely riveted together, are made from stamped aluminum alloy, then anodized. The cam itself is stainless steel. In 1991 the thinnest single ropes were 10.3-mm in diameter, so the Grigri was advertised for use with ropes from 10- to 11-mm. However, the Grigri locks down on today’s thinnest single ropes (8.9-mm) with aplomb, though slightly more rope will slide through the Grigri before the cam fully activates.

Due in part to Petzl’s three patents on the design, the Grigri flourished with little competition for more than a decade. By the mid-2000s however, at least 12 different companies produced their own locking-assist belay devices. Most of these remain so obscure that if you see one at the crag you’ll wonder what the heck it is. Some examples are the Alptech A.B.S., Camp Yo-Yo, Fixe Tapir, Hewbolt, Mammut Smart, Salewa Antz, TRE Sirius, and Wild Country SRC. I’ll give more detail on three devices most commonly used: the Trango Cinch, Edelrid Eddy, and Faders SUM.

Second in popularity to the Grigri, at least in America, is the Trango Cinch, which was introduced in 2004. The Cinch’s body is made of cast steel with a milled aluminum cover. There’s also a spring-loaded plastic handle and miscellaneous small parts. The Cinch catches a fall when the rope moving through the opening causes the lever plate to rotate and cam the rope in place, much like a Grigri. The most obvious benefit of the Cinch is its smaller stature and lighter weight than the Grigri (182-grams vs. 225). The Cinch is intended for ropes between 9.4-mm and 11-mm in diameter.

Edelrid’s Eddy, introduced in 2005, consists of four major components: a forged aluminum body, a rotating cam, a hinged cover plate, and an actuating lever assembly. These parts add up to 350-grams, making the Eddy nearly twice as heavy as the Cinch. There are three significant design differences between the Eddy and other locking-assist devices. First, the two side plates lock into place, eliminating the chance of only clipping through one side plate. Second, the cam locks into place after holding a fall, whereas other devices rely on friction to hold the rope stationary. Finally, the release lever (used for lowering) locks at both extremes of its range, when it’s closed and when it’s opened all the way. The Eddy is intended for ropes with a diameter between 9-mm and 11-mm.

Faders’ SUM consists of three major cast aluminum pieces: a back piece, rotating block, and cover plate. At 260-grams it’s heavier than the Cinch and Grigri yet significantly lighter than the Eddy. One standout design is that the spring-loaded lowering lever is centrally located, making the device ambidextrous. The spring-loaded lowering lever requires more force to deactivate its cam than other devices, so Faders (now merged with Fixe Hardware) suggests a specific technique for lowering in the SUM instruction manual. The SUM is designed for ropes between 9.1-mm and 10.5-mm in diameter.

Once you get the hang (no pun intended) of locking-assist belay devices, their benefits over standard devices become obvious. In fact, they’re so superior to non-locking-assist devices that I rarely use a standard device while rock climbing anymore – even for multi-pitch trad and rappelling. Locking-assist belay devices are necessarily more complicated than standard belay devices. Each device is different and requires its own specific techniques for proper setup, feeding rope, and lowering climbers. So be sure to master their use before belaying with them.

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