Choosing a belay device.

Instruction comes first

The American Alpine Club calls belaying the core skill behind nearly all roped climbing (Ron Funderburke, first printed in Accidents in North American Climbing 2016). It says lead belayers often learn only part of the skills they need before using them, which can lead to accidents, and points to makers' instructions and its own instructor curriculum. The UIAA (2018) says anyone using technical gear needs specific training and must understand the gear's limits. This guide does not explain how to belay, and nothing here says a device is certified, safe or fit for use.

The incident data points at people more than devices:

• The BMC, citing German Alpine Club (DAV) research, says human error rather than the device is the leading cause of belaying accidents. About 20% of climbing reports to its incident database fell under belaying failure or error, and several showed unfamiliarity with a particular device.
• The DAV and KLEVER's 2024 gym statistics, reported by LACRUX, recorded 29 ground falls in roped climbing, two of them fatal, mainly from tie-in and belay errors, most often errors in operating the belay device.

Climbing walls test belayers in their own way; the US Climbing Wall Association's Industry Practices list top-rope and lead belay tests among facility practices.

The device families

The AAC names the tools used for belaying as the Munter hitch, the Sticht plate (an early device), tube-style manual belay devices and assisted-braking devices such as the Grigri. Standards bodies and makers group them with different words, as the next two sections show.

What the standards cover

The UIAA's 2011 announcement classes devices as manual (such as tube devices and figure-eights), locking-assist (such as the Petzl GriGri) and panic-function devices. All must pass a strength test, and locking-assist and panic-function devices must also pass a rope-slippage test. When the first devices received the label in February 2011, the UIAA called it the only certification for braking devices worldwide; that is the UIAA's 2011 claim. These tests describe a laboratory baseline, not what any device will do in a given belay.

"Assisted braking" is a maker's word

The names on the packaging do not line up neatly with the standards:

• Petzl groups its GRIGRI under "Belay Devices with Cam-Assisted Blocking".
• The UIAA (2011) classes the GriGri as a locking-assist device.
• EN 15151-1 is the part for devices with "manually assisted locking".
• Edelrid describes its GIGA JUL as a standard tube device and an assisted-braking tube device in one, and certifies it to EN 15151-2, the manual-device part.

So a device described as giving assisted braking may be certified to either part. The research behind this guide could not check how the standards' own texts treat such devices. The maker's instructions state which part a device is certified to.

Our picks by category

What makers say about lifespan

Metal devices carry different statements from textiles. Edelrid's MAGO 8 instructions (9 October 2025) give the device's maximum service life as "no limitation", with retirement when it reaches its durability limits, and name deformation and sharp edges from wear among reasons to retire it. That is Edelrid's statement for its own device; the maker's instructions and a competent person decide when a particular device is retired. The gear lifespan page compares makers.

Recalls

A UIAA recall page posted on 16 March 2021 relays recalls for inspection of first-generation Beal Birdie and Edelweiss Kinetic belay devices from listed 2019 serial batches, after reports of broken handles. The maker's own current notice is the authority on which devices are affected; see recalls.