Beal Birdie Review: A New Device for Assisted-Braking Belay

The Beal Birdie is a serious contender in the assisted-braking belay device wars. The device functions similarly to a Petzl GRIGRI, which is familiar to a lot of climbers. The Birdie does feed slack without special techniques, but for super quick rope feeds, the GRIGRI thumbing method is effective.