PAS

What the fuck is this.

yes it’s safe.

good god.

Riley O’Brien wrote:

If you read the thread and were in a better mood, I was asking the question to clarify a debated topic

It was a bit flippant, I agree. IT seemed a bit silly. I have never heard people debating this but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

we frequently use single points of connection in climbing — such as ropes and slings. The guy who was hassling you and your friends was out of line and ill-informed. 

a single PAS is plenty secure. For instance, in an extended rappel situation, a technique loved and taught by the AMGA, the PAS is the single point of connection for anchoring to the rappel stations.

it is a fine anchor system. Don’t fall on it statically if you can avoid it. Back it up if you are particularly spooked but at 22kn it’s very unlikely to ever fail.

By itself, no it’s not safe.

You need to use it in combination with a harness. 

Yes, it is safe by itself (well, with a harness). As with all soft goods, look out for signs of wear both on the PAS as well as on things it could be rubbing against. In the case of a PAS, a famous case of failure was the death of Todd Skinner, where his daisy chain (used as a PAS among other things) wore through his belay loop which then failed during a rappel. 

The shock-loading warning is more about your body breaking than about the PAS breaking; falling on anything static will hurt and potentially be lethal due to the sudden deceleration. 

What an odd interaction. 

Did you consider telling them you weren't interested in their treatise? 

Since you didn't, how did they explain their reasoning? It seems like you were forced to listen for a long time. 

There's really no debate, just different levels of understanding and risk tolerance. 

Ry Owrote:

...we were breaking our normal safety routine for the sake of not really caring that day...

What does this mean?

If it weren't safe, Metolius would have been sued out of existence years ago.

Good choice on multi-pitch? I say no, but others will argue yes.

But it's safe. A lot has to go wrong for it to fail.

Em Coswrote:

By itself, no it’s not safe.

You need to use it in combination with a harness. 

No, not if you wear it like a thong. The PAS thong can be used by itself sans harness. Don't think about the physics, just trust me.

You can tell it's not safe by the pile of dead bodies at the base of every multi-pitch classic in Yosemite.