UKC

The Petzl GriGri has ruled the roost for decades, but with the Edelrid Pinch we have finally seen an assisted braking device that knocks this old industry standard off its throne, says Rob Greenwood.

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With mine, I first just got a tiny wire gate krab to rack it with. Of course for most single pitch trad you're not going to carry the device up the route anyway, but you can then use that krab as a super safe back up when you have it clipped directly to your harness.  This is an option for those of us who are super timid and when your deep paranoia and existential dread leads you to suspect you might be the one in a million who manages to some how fall over and open the Pinch on an unfortunately protruding rock just as your partner takes a whipper! Having done this a bit (used a backup krab, not fallen over while belaying) I've found a keylock krab is better than a hooked nose wire gate, being marginally less fiddly. I've got some Edelrid sliders with such noses which work great but it doesn't really need any locking mech, just the lightest one makes sense. 

It would have been very nice to have it compared to the NEOX. I guess most people have a grigri, and decide to either move to a Neox or a Pinch. 

They're somewhat different beasties, though. The Pinch and Grigri are takes on the same principle

With regards to the claim of opening the device whilst it's in use being "physically impossible", I'd like to direct you towards HardIsEasy's recent youtube video, titled Edelrid Pinch - "Strange" Experiments and Long Term Review, where he shows a situation (somewhat accidentally, I might add) in which the device can be opened whilst in use. It's a bit of an edge case, but I'd say falls within the realms of possibility.

As per nufkin's post - the Pinch and GriGri are very similar products, hence logical to compare to each other. The Neox is obviously pitched another level up in terms of performance, which is either a strength or weakness depending on what you're after. Ultimately, it's probably a bit more niche, For 90% of climbers the GriGri or Pinch would be a more suitable product, but for the 10% who're after that greater level of performance (i.e. faster paying out and taking in of slack) then Neox would be better. 

I just watched that video and, and as, always - he's done an exceptionally thorough job. When it comes to the device opening, it is definitely an unusual scenario it's being put through - and being done by someone who is proactively trying to open it. In his own words "it's very, very unlikely" to happen, which is - in hindsight - what I should have said.

I’d advise trying it out if possible before spending the cash.
I just spent a day using one and didn’t like it at all. Felt very sticky with a 9.5 Mammut rope and nowhere near as smooth for a quick clip as a Grigri using the prescribed method.  Lowering was difficult without triggering the safety feature. It was a pain to get on and off the belay loop and didn’t feel to have any advantages over using a crab. 

All might be ideal for you - but just not for me. 

The CT Click up already won your last group test.

The question should really have been “Better than the Click up?”…

My experience of a few weeks with the Pinch after a decade+ with grigris: I like it. It's noticeably easier to feed rope ATC style, I defintely find myself having to disengage the cam less often than with a grigri.

Lowering is rather different: then handle is more on-off than the grigri, so you have do more controlling with the brake hand. One of my reasons for buying the Pinch is that the rope feeds from the front rather than the side while lowering, which in theory might kink the rope less. I wouldn't say I've used it long enough, or often enough with the same rope, to have formed an opinion on that yet.

Can't comment on the anti-panic feature as the first thing I did was install the little blocker screw to disable it.

Forgot to say that I can see the advantages over a Grigri for seconding whilst simulclimbing. Easier to give and take slack with one hand and if attached directly to belay loop, less to flop around.

Funnily enough, I intentionally named the Click Up within the review because it frequently gets forgotten. Despite how good it is though, it's not the market leader - the GriGri is. To make matters even more complicated I'm not entirely sure Climbing Technology is available in the UK anymore. All-in-all it's a shame, because it's a really, really good product that deserves to be more popular than it is.

I used my mates Pinch for a few weeks whilst out in the states and found it very smooth for belaying and lowering, even with the anti panic function enabled. Never had an issue with it engaging when I didn't want it to.
However after some use the button became sticky and wouldn't allow the device to open when loading/unloading the rope without a right faff and then sometimes wouldn't close again without slamming the plate shut.
I'll be sticking with the old faithful GriGri for now. Especially at the inflated price point of the Pinch...

Bananafingers sell their stuff, I bought an Alpine-up from them a fortnight ago.