I’ve been using the Petzl Gri Gri since it came out 20 years ago. The Gri Gri, for those who’ve never seen one, is an auto-locking belay device that works  like a seat belt to catch the falling climber. It’s commonly seen on the racks of sport, trad and big wall climbers. It’s the most popular belay device seen in gyms.

The problem with the traditional Gri Gri design is that it just didn’t work that well with the slimmer ropes found on the market today. They were designed for use on 10-11mm ropes. Though you could catch falling climber with, say, a 9.2 mm rope, Petzl advised against it using the traditional Gri Gri.

The new Gri Gri 2, $94.95 (the same price as the old Gri Gri), works on 8.9mm-11mm ropes. Thus, the original Gri Gri is being phased out by Petzl since the Gri Gri 2 has been optimized. Petzl states that the ideal rope diameter for the Gri Gri 2 is 9.4mm-10.3mm.

Petzl also added progressive descent control to the Gri Gri 2, allowing the belayer to smoothly lower the fallen climber.

The Gri Gri 2 is also smaller and lighter than the old Gri Gri.

http://petzl.com/us

The new Petzl Gri Gri 2