Field Tested: The Edelrid Pinch Belay Device—No Locker Required!

Old habits clearly die hard, because my climbing partner Brandon and I were both grousing the first time we tried out the Edelrid Pinch at the gym. If you haven’t heard, this Star Trek–phaser-looking device is the first belay device that doesn’t need a locking carabiner to attach to your belay loop; you simply press a button on the face-plate to open it, feed rope into the channel, then clip the Pinch—plus rope—shut around your belay loop. The design, as with so many things from Edelrid (the Ohm, the upcoming Ohmega), is novel.

And so, in the face of all this novelty, we initially griped like the grumpy, old, change-resistant boomers that we are: “I don’t get it—how does it clip in?” “How do you feed rope?” And: “Why the hell do I need this?”

However, as soon as Brandon and I had each used the belay-assist Pinch a time or two and figured out its nuances, we grew to love it. It’s found a home in both my gym and cragging packs, a beloved addition that I appreciate for its light weight, reliable belay orientation, small profile, and fluency with skinny cords.

What’s New Here?

As stated above, the Pinch does away with the need for a belay locker—of any ilk, but in particular of the heavier, anti-cross-loading variety designed to prevent minor-axis loading of the belay carabiner. Perhaps this solves a problem we don’t always have, but now that I’ve seen the solution, I’m a convert for two reasons: 1) With no locker required, the Pinch will save weight and volume/size on your harness or in your pack, and 2) It does an amazing job of staying upright, in its ideal belay orientation, and brings the device closer to your body/hands, making it easier to feed rope and maintain control.

First, the weight. The Pinch weighs 234 grams (8.2 ounces). A competitor, the Grigri, weighs less at 175 grams (6.2 ounces), but pair the latter with a classic anti-cross-loading locker like the Black Diamond Gridlock (76 grams, or 2.7 ounces) and suddenly that package deal weighs more than the Pinch, at 251 grams (8.6 ounces). Yes, 0.4 ounces is not a huge difference—and my fellow tester Anthony Walsh, Climbing’s digital editor, said he would likely not bring the Pinch alpine climbing because it is the heavier device, and you’d have lockers with you anyway, for anchor-building. But the Pinch will be lighter in a crag pack, and no locker means there’s one less thing taking up space, which for me, who likes to cram in warm layers, snacks, and multiple pairs of rock shoes, is nice.

However, the second attribute—automatic ideal orientation and close-to-the-body handling—is the main selling point. As I wrote in 2024, in my review of the Petzl Neox, I struggle with the new-school Grigri method we’re “supposed” to use, the one on those gym posters, because I started using the original device back in 1991, when there was no “method” and we just winged it. To me, the weird hand orientation used to open the cam and feed slack while still keeping the brake hand “on” feels unnatural.

However, with the Pinch, as I noticed right away at the gym and then up in the Flatirons, Colorado, having the device close at hand meant I could still feed slack and keep my brake hand on, even with my preferred underhand belay (which doesn’t work with the “new” Grigri method). I usually did this by pressing down on the cam with my pinky finger while gripping the rope firmly between my remaining digits and my thumb, my brake hand ready to clamp down in full. Anthony, who put in 20 days testing at venues ranging from sport cliffs in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, to multi-pitch granite in Squamish and Washington Pass, took a different tack, one I also played with and liked: “I held my thumb on top of the cam (to prevent it from engaging while I paid out slack) and my four fingers below the bottom of the device,” he said. “I believe this is how Edelrid intends for it to be used, and where the name ‘Pinch’ came from.”

So How Well Does the Pinch Feed and Catch?

We both noted that the Pinch is at its best with slick, skinny ropes, like from the low 9mm’s on down: in other words, ultralight redpoint cords and dry-treated alpine ropes. However, from the mid 9mm’s on up, like with gym ropes and fatter or fuzzed-out cords, it feeds slowly—steadily, yes, but ssslllloooowwwlllyyyy.

Anthony’s theory is that the added resistance comes from the Pinch’s visibly smaller rope channel (vs. a Grigri) and steel, V-shaped rope groove (as opposed to the way the Grigri twists the brake strand over a rounded lip). He said, “The V groove straightened out the rope while lowering and rappelling,” with less kinking than a Grigri. “But it wasn’t useful for thicker ropes, which could not be bent at an angle sharp enough to lay against the groove.” Anthony also noted that the Pinch fed better than the Grigri below 9mm, but worse above this threshold. (The Pinch’s stated range for dynamic ropes is 8.5 to 10.5mm, while the Grigri’s is 8.5 to 11mm.)

Thus, on key clips with fatter cords, you’d better be ready to rip slack out against this resistance, putting a little umphf into your belay. On the flip side, having the device closer to you does expand your effective slack-feeding range: At full arm span, I measured 38” of slack with the Pinch, but 35” with a Grigri plus locker. This fact alone, said Anthony, would make him choose the Pinch over the Grigri for single-pitch belaying on sub-9mm ropes: “The Pinch’s closeness to my body was really that appreciated.”

A good test was belaying my buddy Brian on a radically steep 5.13c called Later Creators in the Flatirons. This seven-bolt power-endurance sprint stays close to a rising slope and has a key, fifth, extendo clip you must make off a powerful sidepull at the crux. That day, we were using the 9.8mm Trango Agility, 40m, so a fatter cord for the Pinch, with all the noted resistance. Still, by keeping a somewhat looser belay and being ready at that clip, I didn’t hose Brian once. And the fall-catching action felt dynamic and reliable—as good as with any other belay-assist device out there. Anthony concurred, saying that the Pinch handily caught everything from 25-footers at a local overhanging sport crag to seconding falls while he was belaying from above on Freedom or Death (5.12a) on the East Face of Liberty Bell in Washington Pass.

“The Pinch barely slipped before the cam engaged, and reliably caught the bulk of the climber’s weight” each time, he noted.

Bells and Whistles and More

The Pinch also comes with a deactivatable anti-panic function—like the Grigri+, the cam auto-engages and the lowering lever flicks back down if you lower “too quickly.” While it’s not a feature I love, I can see why some like it, and it worked with consistency while testing. It’s also worth noting that the lowering lever, to stay flush with the device, is shorter than on a Grigri, which somehow made it feel “dainty” in my big hands, though the beefy green plastic seems bomber and the lowering action was smooth.

Per Edelrid, the Pinch, for multipitch climbing, also allows “Attachment to the belay station in four different directions in 90° increments,” giving you guide-mode options when belaying from above. However, remarked Anthony, this claim only holds up if you have a soft master point, like a sling tied with an overhand on a bight. “Two of the four orientations have a very small clip-in point—much smaller than most locking carabiners,” he said. “As a result, I was able to use only two clip-in points while belaying from above, as I use a girth-hitch masterpoint anchor.”

Users might also notice that the rope channel is exposed on the bottom of the device, so you could theoretically burn your hands on a rope heated up from rapid lowering or a massive whipper, unlike with the Grigri’s enclosed channel—though this never happened to us. And the hyper-safety-minded might worry that you could somehow, while belaying, depress the face-plate-opening button and inadvertently disconnect the device from your belay loop. However, no matter how hard we tried, we were unable to engineer this situation—it absolutely takes two hands, one on the button and one opening and pulling up on the device, to trigger this scenario.

Brandon, Anthony, and I all truly loved using the Pinch, and have likewise appreciated its durability. Its burly, steel-plated design seems built to last, and even after Anthony’s several months of testing, including in the alpine, the only visible wear has been scuffs where he collided with the wall while catching whippers at hanging belays. The Pinch is an ideal device for single-pitch cragging on skinny lines and for beginner topropers who’ll appreciate the anti-panic function. With its sleek design and compact, reassuring feel in hand—and with the device so close to your body—it may just offer the most ergonomic belay option around.

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