Pinch

I'm old school and have fully switched. I use the Edelrid Pinch and the Edelrid Giga Jul. Good form and diligence are hugely important, but predictably fallible.

All of those that you mentioned do exactly the same things: belay with single or double ropes, rappel on single or double ropes, and "guide mode" belay from the top anchor. They're all great, so you could pick any of them and be fine. Alternatively you could look into getting an assisted belay devic

Most versatile is definitely the edelrid giga jul. It's got assisted and standard modes, 2 rope slots for double ropes or rappelling, guide mode, and is pretty affordable. This is good if you want one device for literally everything. If you're only going to be doing single pitch sport, it's hard to

If you're sticking edelrid then gigajul is the obvious next step assuming you dont want to go to a grigri/pinch style device. I end up using a grigri most of the time because it's fairly low effort and it's convenient for a number of tasks, though I have an ATC with me. Does take some extra brake st

A couple of questions really need to be answered to narrow down the options. Do you care about weight? Do you want an anti panic function? Do you want to be following manufacturers instructions? There are (to the best of my knowledge) no devices desgined to be used on a single rope abseil that when

I find using the pinch on an edelrid harness with the thinner belay loop is much easier to attach without snagging fabric. It also works better in general. I like it a lot and will look out for this issue.

I think a nice upgrade over the DMM Mantis would be a Mammut Smart or an Edelrid Jul2. If you wanted to get something fancier and a different 'style' entirely. An upgrade to the Petzl Grigri+ or Edelrid Pinch would be great.

HowNOT2 published a long, detailed, and entertaining discussion of the Edelrid Pinch with Tommy Caldwell 2 months ago. i have had the pinch for a while now and for me it is definitely the better device. everything about it seems to be just as good as the grigri and then there are some parts better t

Finally a good question! Thanks. So you have a few options for these kinds of things. In our case we were swinging with an edelrid pinch (this new awesome device eliminates the chance of a carabiner crossload and works like a gri gri) attached to our rope from our harness with a backup knot directly

I prefer the edelrid pinch just cause it has more versatility in how you can attach it to your harness/anchor. It also has an anti-panic handle on it like the grigri+ that you can disable by removing a pin if you want.