The GRIGRI is one of those classic autolocking belay devices that you either love or hate. Some say that its autolocking feature makes it a very safe device to use. Others claim it that it is easy to misuse and this makes it dangerous.

Personally, I like the GRIGRI for sport routes, especially when I am belaying in a risky or uncomfortable situation (on a narrow ledge, for example), and the auto-locking mechanism has proved useful and prevented injury on more than one occasion. But it takes practice and patience to learn to get it right.

As always, it is a case of the right tool for the right job, and mastering the tool before relying on it, especially when lives are at stake. It is particualrly easy to misuse it for belaying a leader, so if you are using it for this purpose, I urge you to view the video below, courtesy of Petzl: