Reviewed: Will the New Petzl Neox Replace the Beloved GriGri?

Petzl's new Neox is a sleek assisted-braking belay device. How does it stack up to the Grigri? We put it to the test.

The post Reviewed: Will the New Petzl Neox Replace the Beloved GriGri? appeared first on Climbing.

Back in 2009, my wife, Kristin, and I had to take a belay test while visiting a new gym. I’d been using the Petzl Grigri, the classic assisted-braking belay device, for nearly 20 years, and had never failed a test—or dropped anyone. But as we wrapped up, the gym employee took us aside.

He pointed to a glossy informational poster behind him showing Petzl’s official new Grigri technique: to feed slack, instead of pulling through it ATC-style and hoping the brake-assisting cam didn’t engage—or pinching open the cam with the brake hand (which had to temporarily leave the rope)—you now had to perform some convoluted gyration with your thumb to keep your brake hand perpetually on the rope, albeit very close to the device. What sort of devilry was this?

“Well, Petzl just came out with this new technique, and we put the poster up last night,” he said. “So, I suppose I can pass you…for today.”

I’ve since dreaded belay tests because of my tendency to use the Grigri the “bad way”—which was kind of the only way when it came out. Yes, the Grigri is not, at least per the legalese, meant to be “hands free,” so what I was doing was technically wrong. And so, like many of us who just couldn’t master the “new way,” I found myself constantly wishing for a device that married the Grigri’s supremely reliable brake assist with the easy slack payout of an ATC.

Why, oh why, did such a thing not exist—and who was going to invent it?

Well, it turns out it was Petzl, by introducing the Neox, which looks exactly like the Grigri but is slightly larger and heavier. (My home scale puts the latest Grigri at 176 grams, and the Neox at 237 grams, or 6.2 ounces and 8.3 ounces, respectively.) There’s been a lot of build-up and anticipation around this device, and I believe the hype is merited—the Neox feeds so smoothly and naturally, and locks off so reliably, that it’s going to make a lot of belayers both safer and better—whichever way they’ve been using the Grigri. In fact, even if you’ve only ever known the “new way” of Grigri belaying, the Neox takes rope handling up a notch thanks to its rapid feeding and butter-smooth catches. And, for new belayers struggling with the Grigri’s strict auto-locking mechanics, the Neox is a much friendlier option.

The fundamental difference between the two devices lies in the cam. With the Grigri, the plate that pinches down on the weighted rope has a fixed, raised “plateau” at its heart that forms one side of the rope channel. With the Neox, the plate design is basically the same, only its heart is a freely spinning, spring-tensioned wheel, the secret sauce that drastically improves giving slack—essentially, you get the free-running rope of an ATC with the cam-activated brake-assist of the Grigri.

My first experience with the Neox was with a couple of prototypes a friend who works at Petzl brought to Boulder, Colorado, this spring. They weren’t that far off the finished model, which I’ve been testing since early June, for lead belaying and toproping on ropes around 9mm in diameter, and single-line rappelling and ascent on 10mm and 11mm static lines. (The Neox is designed for ropes from 8.5 to 11mm.)

I’m not sure how to say it other than I immediately loved and still love the Neox, primarily because you can, as with an ATC, whip rope through with the guide hand while simultaneously coaxing it through from below with the brake hand, which can now easily and always stay on the rope. Even while belaying my 6’1” friend Will, who will reach down by his knees and pull up King Kong-sized bytes when clipping, I’ve been able to keep up, without the Grigri’s sometimes staccato short-roping. The Neox, in fact, feeds with such buttery quickness that it almost feels like “cheating,” though perhaps this is just years of Grigri trauma talking. I’m sure newly minted lead belayers will equally appreciate the Neox’s intuitive, snag-free performance.

The one caveat is that, unconsciously reverting back to my bad, old Grigri habits—taking my brake hand off to pinch the device open and reel out slack with the guide hand—has caused the Neox to lock up if my climber is pulling slack aggressively, giving the “click of death” that presages a potential short-roping. However, this is purely user error, and every time I’ve remembered to pull first with the guide hand, abetted by the brake hand, and to do so smoothly, the Neox has fed perfectly. (Note that you could also stick with the “new way”—if that’s your jam, you frickin’ weirdo.)

The flip side to a faster-feeding device is that the Neox lets a little more rope through in a fall—not a huge amount, but usually about 6 to 12 inches. Friends and I noticed this right away with the prototypes, and I’ve confirmed this by using the Grigri and the Neox in the same day. The upside is that the Neox gives a softer catch, and, in a trad-climbing setting, will likely exert less force on your top piece, helping to avoid the dreaded gear-ripper; the downside is that, close to the ground, you’ll need to be more heads-up. And if weight in your pack is a concern, then perhaps those extra two ounces will matter, though I actually preferred the Neox’s extra heft and longer lowering handle.

The Neox was also ideal for toprope belaying, taking in rope just as smoothly as it pays it out. And it was a delight while establishing new climbs on a fixed static line, whether while rappelling or ascending, using a jumar and etrier above the Neox for progress. The Neox felt way less jerky to me than rapping with a Grigri, and took in slack nicely while I jugged, again thanks to the wheel’s smooth action. On a multi-pitch in Alberta, my co-tester noted how smoothly the Neox belayed from above compared to a traditional ATC/plate-style device. There was minimal resistance in the Neox’s spinning wheel, but he noted, per Petzl, to maintain a brake hand on the rope to avoid rope slippage. In a lead-belay scenario, he imagines the Neox will also be a better option for left-handed climbers, who can adopt traditional ATC rope-feeding tactics.

My final note would be, if you’re a pre-2009 Grigri user, to not go back and forth between the two devices, to avoid the belay confusion described above. I mean, really, at this point I’d just get a Neox—it really is that good, and well worth the extra $40 over the Grigri.

Check out the Petzl Neox on Rei.com

The post Reviewed: Will the New Petzl Neox Replace the Beloved GriGri? appeared first on Climbing.