Dudley North Wales Mines Weekend. Day1....The Croesor / Rhosydd Through Trip.

Kay, myself and Jess travelled to Llandudno on the Friday night to avoid the bank holiday traffic.

Saturday morning after a walk on the pier and donuts for breakfast we went to meet Kay at her bed and breakfast before collecting Loz at a nearby Mcdonalds and heading on to Tanygrisiau where we had arranged to hook up with Mike and Lucy for midday.

The long walk to the Croesor entrance was as much fun as ever, Kay particularly enjoyed it after having had a 4 course breakfast!

At the entrance we met some European hikers who poked their nose in the entrance before declaring us mad and going on their way.

This would be Lucy's first real SRT and so we had brought enough rope to rig a tandem abseil and so I descended beside her to keep an eye on her, though it really wasn't needed as she had no problems at all.
Whilst the usual fun was had on the Zip line I took advantage of the others playing back and forth to get a planned shot of the rickety suspension bridge before we continued on through the other various obstacles.
I had been a little worried about getting Lucy across the traverse, but a second zip line is now in place making the traverse redundant. We had another play with photo's, this time getting Kay to use her Vape to create a smokey effect, intact creating so much smoke I couldn't see across the chamber!
We eventually got the hang of how much would create the right effect and grabbed the shot before moving on.
Lucy and Kay were nervous of the new rigging at the bridge of death, but both had no problems at all when it came their turn to cross.
As we reached the canoe we realised we were going to be close to our call out time. Jess suggested I go ahead with Mike and Lucy to ensure we would make it out on time until I pointed out I was the only one who knew the way out and so we stayed as a group navigating through Rhosydd.

Once out Loz did her thing and jogged down to the cars. She arrived with only 5 minutes to spare before Keith was actually going to initiate the call out.

After a proper scolding by Mr. Edwards we headed to Betws Y Coed for a good meal and then back to Llandudno.

View from the bedroom, LlandudnoPier

Lucy on the wobbly suspension bridge

Kay on the 2nd Abseil

Mike & Jess at the 2nd Zip Line

Hungy cavers!

Present: Kay Wood, Loz Appleby, Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey

Croesor-Rhosydd A Shockingly Wet Adventure

After our adventures in Lanzarote, it was something of a shock to the system to come back to the UK.....even more so when our first trip back was decided to be North Wales in January!

Myself, Jess, Loz, Chloe and Mark met up at the car park at 10am. As we did so another group of eight arrived and came over to ask where we were planning on going. It turned out we were both intending on the Croesor to Rhosydd through trip, but as our group were planning on spending some time taking photos we decided that it shouldn't cause any issues.

We let the other group head up the hill before us and begun our amble up ourselves.

At the entrance window the first group were just heading in, so we took our time kitting up and had a bite of our sandwiches before entering ourselves.

We caught the other party at the first abseil so I got out the camera and wasted some time taking a few shots and wound up doing the same again at the next pitch.

The last of their members were just crossing the zip line as we arrived but as this was my main objective for a photograph we wouldn't catch them again.
I begun unpacking the 15kg of camera kit I'd lugged up the hill for the shot. Jess unpacked the boat she had carried for me and the three girls begun blowing it up whilst I gave Mark a flash gun to take to the other side.

With the boat inflated Chloe begun bouncing around asking if she could be the one in the boat. She took the inflated dingy to the waters edge and Loz tried to steady things. Unfortunately this proved a little more awkward than anticipated and with a splosh Chloe went head first in to the deep, icy water. She scrambled to get back out with the cold taking her breath away and had another go. This time she managed to get in safely and I handed her a dry bag with a few flash guns in. I'd tested a similar set up around the corner and had to put some rocks in to get it to submerge.

After a couple of shots Chloe squealed from the boat saying the rocks I'd put in had pierced the bag and it was filling with water. She just made it back to shore when the flash gun which was  shrieking  in the pool of water went bang and emitted a rather unpleasant electrical burning smell.

We popped the batteries out of the wet equipment, dried it off as best we could and continued on.

Chloe's least favourite part of the trip is the traverse which she finds hugely awkward and this time was no exception. After 20 minutes of fighting with it she finally dragged herself up the slope, but with all her adrenaline gone, being soaked to the skin, and the howling draught coming through the mine she was soon turning a rather unflattering shade of blue. We begun a quick game of strip caver and each donated some dry clothing for her to get her warmed back up and continued our way over the bridges of death, abseiled down in to the waiting boat and out via Rhosydd to a damp and windy night sky.

Although Jess and I were quite looking forward to a cosy evening in the van with our gas heating and 15 tog duvet, listening to the patter of rain on the roof, for some reason Chloe wasn't as keen on setting up her tent in the pouring rain and so it was decided we'd call it a day and retreat back to the Midlands where it almost never rains and its a nice constant twenty degree's all year round ;)

A dry Chloe on the 1st abseil

2nd abseil

Zip line after the 2nd abseil

Chloe struggles on the awkward traverse

Loz on the Bridge of Death

Jess exits Rhosydd to a wet and windy night

Present:

Mark Burkey, Mark Burgess, Chloe Burney, Jess Burkey & Loz Appleby

Croesor Rhosydd Through Trip.....Mining Heaven.....Batteries not included

As is now our annual tradition Jess and I arranged to take Chloe on a birthday adventure. An email was sent out to see if anyone else fancied a play in North Wales and Mark B...U...R...G decided to join us.
 We met at the car park above Tanygrisiau and were soon surrounded by 20 familiar faces from South Wales Caving Club who were off to Cwmorthin Slate Mine.
We had a quick chat, with Mark2 giving some route advice, before we kitted up and headed up the valley.

 After some huffing and puffing we arrived at the Croesor entrance and took a minute to pop SRT kits on. At this point I realised I'd left my gloves back at the van, If only this turned out to be my only faux pas of the day.
After an amble down the entrance series I began positioning my 5 flash guns for the first of many exciting shots of this fun through trip.... 'Click!'... I got a feel for how I would take my shot so called Jess to hold a flash gun.....after this my camera refused to play and upon closer investigation it turned out I hadn't charged the batteries....Doh! 

We continued down the first abseil and on to the 2nd. Here the in-situ rope looked rather glazed and so we decided to use the rope Mark2 had hauled up the hill and set a pull through, but upon trying to pull the rope through it snagged on the in-situ line and I had to prussic back up to free it (fortunately this was my 3rd thing to go wrong and so the circle of bad luck was complete)

 The rest of the trip went without issue with lots of fun had at the various zip wire, bridges, traverses and boat rides. An excellent choice for a birthday trip and definitely a piece of mining heaven.

Present: Mark Burgess, Chloe Burney, Mark Burkey & Jess Burkey

Another Croesor Rhosydd Through Trip!

As Andy drove us toward North Wales on Saturday morning he asked how much further than the lake the walk in  to Croesor was, to which I replied......what lake?...so we knew that the trip could be interesting, we just didn't realise how interesting it would become!

Aside from only a minor navigational blip, the walk to Croesor was straight forward. Andy struggled a little with the steep sections and sat himself down at one point declaring he would go no further! After a little persuasion, promising him the mine was only over the next rise, we had him back on his way and were soon kitting up ready for our adventure.

Our first problem came at the bottom of the first pitch where I couldn't for the life of me remember where the second pitch was and a 20 minute scout around the chamber ensued before Mel spotted the rope coiled at the top of the pitch. Andy and I glanced at each other knowing that if it was coiled there was likely a problem and, after checking, found there was indeed a cut in the rope that had been isolated with an alpine. We had brought a 30m rope that could be used to drag people out of the water if needed, but if we were to continue it would mean using the rope in situ.
After re-checking the rope I was happy enough with the condition to use it and do a mid rope change over to pass the knot. After doing this I saw the last party had obviously ignored the mid section rope protection and could see where the rope was going to rub, so shouted up to Andy and Mel that after passing the knot they would need to remove and then replace the protection as they went past it.
 Mel was next and managed to get herself hung up as her foot loop turned out to be just a little too long which in turn left her hand jumar just out of  her reach. Cursing like a navvy she finally managed to free herself and came smoothly down.
Andy was next and as we watched his light come in to view a sizable piece of slate hit the floor beside us, so we quickly backed off. As we did Andy shouted "Below!" and another piece came down hitting Mel in the hand! Nothing looked to be broken, there seemed to be no swelling so Mel decided to push on.
There were no further issues as we took on the zip wire, traverses and bridges (even with half of the last bridge of death now gone!) and we were soon at the last abseil. Andy and I pulled the boats across and Andy descended first, moving backward to allow room for Mel next and sat in a nice pool of water :) Mel was next and half way down the pitch her hand spasmed and let go of the thin 9mm rope for just a second and plummeted the final 10 feet to land half in / half out of the boat! After this last scare the final prussik and exit went smoothly and we were soon in the sun making our way back to the car, happy we had managed to take on the dangerous trip, with the only fatality being Andy's kit bag which had commited Hara-Kiri between the first two absiels!

Present: Andy Grimes, Mel Wakeman & Mark Burkey

Croesor Rhosydd Through Trip

This wasn't a Dudley Caving Club Trip. We cave quite often with Richard and Rachel from WMCEG and they blog their trips on Sterling Adventures where incidentally you can read Rachel's account of the trip which is illustrated with some of Brendan's excellent photos. The Sterling Adventures bloggers meet up annually to have adventures. This year Brendan and I were asked to lead this adventure. The video tells the story of the trip.

Present: Brendan and Keith + Ian, Rachel, Richard, Pete, Tish and Dave.