Got yelled at in a Denver climbing gym for using a grigri wrong

I've been climbing for 5 years and always belayed with an ATC, but last week some guy at Movement told me grigris are safer for top rope and I should switch... Is belay device choice really that serious or was he just being a gear snob?

3 comments

3 Comments

evahenderson1mo ago

Side with the guy who yelled honestly because a grigri isn't some magical safety device if you don't know what you're doing lol. The whole point is that it catches automatically but only if you hold the brake side down or it'll just feed rope out like a normal ATC if you panic. People treating it like a brainless backup are way more dangerous than someone using an ATC correctly every time.

claire_davis311mo ago

Wait, someone at a climbing gym actually yelled at you for using a Grigri wrong? That's wild. I've seen people tie their daisy chains backwards and no one says a word, but God forbid you hold the brake rope wrong on a device that literally has a camming mechanism to catch you anyway. Like yeah, you gotta use it right, but yelling? That's just gym culture being extra sometimes. I've been using an ATC for ages too and never had issues. People get so weird about gear choices (especially in Denver, I swear).

nguyen.blake1mo ago

Respectfully, I gotta disagree a little here. Yelling isn't just "gym culture being extra" to me, it's someone being a jerk when they could just talk normal. Even if someone's holding a Grigri wrong, shouting at them isn't going to make them learn anything - it just makes them nervous or defensive next time. I get that some people feel strongly about safety gear, especially in Denver where everyone thinks they're an expert, but that energy doesn't help anyone. A simple "hey, try keeping your thumb off the handle" would do way more good than getting in someone's face about it. We all started somewhere, and acting like you've never made a mistake is just silly.