A trip to The Far North. Dan Yr Ogof

Kay and I headed down the SWCC on the Friday to get a decent nights sleep before our big trip on the Saturday. Unfortunately Plymouth Uni had other plans and were outside partying till 4.30am, at which time they decided a spot of naked caving was on the plans and headed off to Cwm Dwr!

We met Los at the DYO car park at half ten, kitted up and headed in.

Low water levels and only taking a point and click camera meant we made good time and we took the usual round trip route past Cloud Chamber in.  Only a single ring was available at the green canal and so Kay elected to get wet whilst Loz and I went over the top and abseiled down to join her.

Our swift progress continued as we made our way up the Rising and through to the Great North Road.

After Pinnacle chamber we decided to take The Meanders in to the cave and after just under 4 hours were sitting at the final choke.

As Kay had never been to this part of the cave before we went for a look at The Mostest on the way out and headed back via The North Bypass. We took the lower series out and were back in the sunshine eating cake for 7pm after a good 8hr trip underground.

He's behind you!!!

Loz in the long crawl

Loz at the final choke

Kay at the final choke

Present: Laura Appleby, Kay Wood & Mark Burkey

Dan Yr Ogof, The Far North

Although not really feeling well rested after a rather busy week we had promised Chloe and Mark a trip to the Far North in Dan Yr Ogof, and so we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to South Wales hoping the weather would be kind.
Upon arriving at the show cave we were pleased to find water levels quite low and the sun even popped out as we changed.
We made our way in through the entrance series with no problems to the green canal, only stopping off for a quick photo of cloud chamber. The others elected to do the chilly swim whilst I popped over the top.
The caving stayed fairly easy going as we made our way up the rising and down the various pitches until we arrived at the mostest. Here Chloe took a look at the rift climb and wasn't over enthusiastic about continuing, which suited me, and so we went to look at the pretties before continuing back over the high level route to Pinnacle Chamber.
At the pitch out of the Great North Road we again paused for photographs before continuing out.
Back at the SWCC we feasted on lasagne and garlic bread compliments of Jess before heading for a good nights sleep before our Sunday adventures.

Cloud Chamber

Great North Road Pitch

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

A Round Trip In Dan Yr Ogof

For Sunday Mike had asked if there was a chance of getting in to Dan Yr Ogof for him and his friends. The weather had been kind all week and the water levels seemed pretty good, so as we had both Chloe and Myself who were wardens we decided to give it a go.
We went in officially as two groups, but inevitably wound up on each others heels. Chloe led the way in through reasonably high lakes and cascades and Mikes friends were suitably impressed with the roar of the water.
We took the usual round trip route in via the upper series with Anita, a friend of Mikes taking pictures as we went.
Whilst Anita captured the magnificent Cloud Chamber, I had a go at a reflective shot that I'd tried before.
At the green canal we found no floatation at all and so Mark and I went over the traverses above to see if the dig rope was still in place to land at the other side. It was, so we descended and retrieved a load of rings and life jackets to take back to the other side.
With everyone chilled from the swim we continued on down the Elephant Hutch and through the Camels Arse and on to the lower series.
Water levels must have been very high in the preceding weeks as we found no footprints as we made our way through Bakerloo, over the hoovermatic and back up to the long crawl.
The lakes had fallen a little whilst we had been in, but still gave a magnificent roar to greet us as we made our way back out.

Cloud Chamber (Photo Mark)

Baker loo (Photo by Anita)

Cloud Chamber (Photo Anita)

Cloud Chamber (Photo Anita)

Present: Mark1, Mark2 & Mark3!  Chloe, Mike, Chris & Anita

Ars'in about & Chillin in the Green Canal

For Sunday we planned on taking Mike in another first for him, Dan Yr Ogof.

Brendan wanted to grab a classic shot in Straw Chamber and I wanted to do the same at Crystal Pool, so our trip was set.

Water levels were low on the way in and the group made swift progress in through to the long crawl, even with me slowing the group to take a shot at Pot Sump.
Jess brushed up on her navigation leading us through to the Green Canal, but we found most of the buoyancy was at the other end, so decided to complete the round trip in the other direction, starting in the lower series.
At Mazeways we found the, usually sumped, entrance open and so popped in for a play before continuing on.
Jess made going through the Camels Arse look incredibly awkward, I went on to make it look all but impossible and Mike popped through no problem....Peace of P*ss, I believe was the phrase he used ;)
Continuing on we climbed out up the Abyss and on to take a look at The Rising  before backtracking to the Green Canal and out the way we'd come.

Brendan and Mike Near Pot Sump

Brendan, Mike & Jess at the Crystal Pool

Mike in Cloud Chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Mike in Cloud Chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Present: Mike Bonner, Brendan Marris, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey

Making the Mostest of our trip to Dan Yr Ogof

Loz contacted us mid-week asking if we could offer her a couple of longish trips over the weekend.  I fancied having a play toward the Far North in anticipation of a future trip to photograph Pinnacle chamber, to get an idea of how many people and equipment would be needed to capture this impressive chamber, and so the trip was planned.

In my rush to get there on time I had managed to forget to print off the required paperwork and so we diverted to visit Peter Cardy, who kindly offered the use of his printer.

I shouldn’t have worried too much about getting there on time, after all this is the ‘Late Loz Appleby’ we were caving with ;)

We were eventually kitted up (It wouldn’t be until we arrived at the long crawl that I’d realise I had forgotten my kneepads….Doh!) and entering the show cave at about 11am, We had set a turnaround of 4pm and would just see how far we could get in that time.

Loz had never done the Green Canal so we took the wetter option rather than the lower series in. Upon arrival we found only a couple of small rings so I headed up the canal first to both retrieve enough for ourselves and to leave a few more at that end. The water was extremely cold for some reason, or perhaps it was just that I had been in it longer, but I had only just started to warm up when we got to the Rising.

We made swift progress up the ladder and rift to Windy Way and down the pitch in to The Great North Road. At Pinnacle chamber I pointed out the climb down from the Over Pass that I hoped we would return via before heading down to the Meanders.

As we rounded a corner I looked up and just had to have a go at capturing the impressive passage. I set up the flash guns, took a single shot and then got the girls to reposition, was just about to take another and the flash behind me slipped off the ledge and in to the stream way. I snatched it up and ejected the batteries and begun shaking out the water, only to have the end of the gun come off in my hand and the flashgun sploshed into the water again! Checking it over I found the hot shoe connection smashed, so from this point onward I would only have the two flashguns. It was quite an interesting lesson in the end as I had to adjust how I took shots, electing for different camera settings and using strong backlighting, so not all was lost; I learnt something other than ‘be more careful with your expensive toys’ ! ;/

(Jess says “from my viewpoint, the flashgun fell into about an inch of water and Mark retrieved it swiftly, so it would probably be ok. But then he looked at it, shook it and threw it into a deep puddle in disgust! Loz and I were in stitches…”)

We continued on to The Mostest, an impressive and pretty area of flow stones, frozen rivers and crystal pools. Again I spent a little time taking a few pics before finding the start of the overpass. Time was getting on and after a brief discussion we decided to head out, finishing the round trip as we went.

Loz at the Far North Road Pitch

Loz and Jess in the Meanders

Jess at the entrance to Cloud Chamber

Present: Loz Appleby, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey

Dan Yr Ogof - Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

This trip was to serve several purposes. Firstly a navigation trip for Chloe to verify the routes were firmly cemented, a treat for Carl as he had not visited the cave before and finally a chance to pool a good number of flashguns to have a go at a large chamber shot. There had been a good deal of rain and on entering the lakes water levels were close to the limit of safe passage. We had a rather moist passage through the lakes and fought our way up the cascades. We took a standard route through the 1937 Series pausing only once on the way in to watch Lavatory Dan in full flow. Carl videoed through the Long Crawl including an interesting manoeuvre where we passed over Carl in the crawl. We headed through the high level series first, stopping off at Cloud Chamber to take a couple of photos (with 8 flashguns in total). Now cooled down we headed through the Green Canal and then onwards to the Rising including a couple of detours to look in Bog Passage and Surprise Chamber. We then returned through the Lower Series passing some rather wet sections to return to Gerrard Platten Hall. A quick return to Cloud Chamber then followed to pick up the camera gear before we headed out of the cave.

Cloud Chamber - Dan Yr Ogof

Cloud Chamber - Dan Yr Ogof

Present: Mark Burkey, Chloe Burney, Carl Knott, Brendan Marris

Elusive A2 in Dali's Delight. Dan Yr Ogof.

For Tuesday I was joined by Keith, Jess and Loz.

For the last trip of the weekend an easier trip was the order of the day, so a trip in to Dan Yr Ogof to Dali's Delight via Elliptic passage was decided on.
I loaded a bag with my camera gear, SRT kit and a ladder which weighed in at a hefty amount and meant my easy bimble was actually quite a workout!
Although the lakes seemed to be at normal levels the rest of the system seemed to have a good amount of standing and flowing water. We took the usual route in to the Canyon. The bag not causing too many problems through the crawls and headed in to Elliptic passage. At the pot to climb down to the sand crawls to link in to Bakerloo I paused to take a picture of Loz and then on we went. The Camels Arse proved interesting doing in reverse, especially with the full tackle sack!
I went up Dali's climb using a hand jammer and rigged the ladder for the others who quickly joined me. Again we paused for me to take a shot at the pinnacles before heading in to every hole and climb we could find. Our objective was to find the link to A2 chamber, but there were a few leads we would require a hand line for and time was running short so we decided to do a little more research and come back another time with a bit more kit.
Upon trying to exit we found that the inner door of the show cave had lost the knob to unlock it and had a moment trying to fashion a ratchet out of our belt buckles.
We finally managed enough grip to turn and open it and were greeted by sunshine.
The cafe was closing up as we changed, but Jess managed to grab some takeaway drinks and donuts which we munched after changing :)

Jess at the Pinnacles

Loz descends Elliptic Pot

Present: Keith Edwards, Jess Burkey, Mark Burkey and Loz Appleby

Dan-yr-Ogof & Sucking the fun out of caving

I had been lacking enthusiasm for organising a trip for the weekend so Jess and Chloe decided on a couple of trips.

The first was to be DYO....... Jess wanted to do the tighter bit of the longer crawl as she had previously done the whole route, bar about 5m of tight squalid crawling. Chloe's only prerequisite was that she wanted a couple of challenging trips as she hadn't found anything tiring of late......Chloe has previously asked for trips that scare her and trips that she would find 'memorable' in the past and this weekend we were again able to fulfil her criteria :)

Entering through the show cave we were in for a pleasant surprise with reindeer, penguins and father Christmas lining the route in!
Sploshing through the lakes I noticed a passage off which I had previously not explored. Fairly sure it would be the way in to the Syphon Series I called the other two to follow and we did indeed find a couple of pieces of pipe in a clear pool. After a couple of minutes priming the pipe we headed off for our round trip whilst the syphon did its work.
On our way through we took a quick detour to Wigmore Hall and up the old dig at the end before continuing on through to the climb up to the longer crawl. The crawl itself was somewhat more strenuous than I remembered as this time I had my camera box catching and jamming every couple of feet, but we were soon through the worst and continuing with our round trip. Chloe led the way with only a couple of pointers for route finding.
On our way out we decided to take a look at the syphon and found that there was a good foot and a half of air space and the syphon still going strong. We were well within our call out time so decided to go and have an explore. I led the way and was soon lying in gloomy mud with a foot of water covering it as I negotiated the duck through to the muddy section of the series. We headed down the passage way first slipping and sliding our way through copious amounts of sludge until we reached a sump. About facing we headed the other way until we reached a blocked constriction. This was at the foot of a very muddy and slippery slope and both Jess and Chloe were in fits of giggles as they tried to turn around in the very small chamber at the end and slid all over the place. On our way back through the duck we headed up a more inviting looking passage which soon turned in to a sharp and awkward rift. Again this was followed to its conclusion taking pieces of my suit with it (back at the hut I would check the survey and find this passage aptly named 'Razor Passage')
Back in the lakes we washed off the sludge and mud......Jess was sure we'd actually found the sewage series rather than the syphon series.......before returning to warm up with a luxuriously warm shower.

Jess tries to ppppick up a penguin!

Chloe finds Santa stuck in a squeeze!

Jess in the cascades between the entrance lakes

Chloe negotiates the tight longer crawl

Jess in Bakerloo Straight

Present: Mark Burkey, Jessica Burkey, Chloe Burney

Dan Yr Ogof Round Trip

On our North Wales weekend we fortunate to be offered a leader led trip in to ODB.
Our Leader, Marc, mentioned he was hoping to go to South Wales and we offered to lead some trips for him as a thank you.
Saturday saw us do the classic OFD 1 to OFD II through trip.

To continue Marc’s weekend tour of South Wales, we decided it wouldn’t be complete without a round trip in Dan Yr Ogof. I had been in twice previously so Mark decided to let me lead (without any survey!) to see how much I could remember.

I managed to flawlessly navigate through the show cave…….. Whoever said this leading malarkey was hard work!?

At the Lakes we found the water was at a surprisingly low level and we were soon through to Straw Chamber, where we took a short diversion into Corbel’s Chamber. Marc isn’t particularly keen on small spaces but the long crawl proved to be far less of a challenge than he was expecting and we made it through to the fixed ladder without incident.

Once at the Crystal Pool we stopped to take a few photos, and while Mark packed the camera away, I took Marc along Flabbergasm to show him the straw formations. We then continued through the Grand Canyon to Cloud Chamber and the Green Canal. As always, I was the first to grab a rubber ring and go whizzing off through the clear water. Once we had emptied the ponds from our wellies on the far side, we took a diversion down Go Faster and Go Slower Passage to the Rising. After a photo at the Battleship we retraced our steps and headed to the top of the Abyss. The climb down was far less intimidating than I remembered and in fact was almost fun!

Once under the Camel and through Thixotropic Passage, Mark was very pleased to find the sump to Mazeways open as he had been waiting a while to explore this short but interesting area of the cave. We split up and spent a short while running up the converging and diverging passages, and of course Mark wanted a few more photos. We completed the round trip by making our way back to the crawl via Bakerloo and retraced our steps to the Lakes where Mark decided he really really wanted a photo. Being the ‘water baby’ he explained that my job was to walk out to the centre of the lake, hands full of flash guns, until I was only just holding my head above the water so I could backlight Marc, but of course remembering not to fall in and get the equipment wet! So after what seemed like an eternity teetering on my tiptoes in freezing water trying not to drown either myself or the flash guns, Mark finally had the photo he wanted, and I raced out to the van to get warm.
All in all an excellent trip in a beautiful cave, and a route I am keen to do again soon to cement the navigation in my head.

Marc In Lake 2

Chloe In Mazeways

The Crystal Pool 

Trip Report: Chloe Burney

Present: Chloe Burney, Mark Burkey and Guest Marc (N Wales)

A Dali Delightful Birthday Treat In Dan Yr Ogof

For the second half of Chloe's birthday request for trips we offered up a trip to a less visited area of Dan yr Ogof.

We followed the normal round trip route in to the system and were planning on heading straight to the lower series but Chloe really wanted to do her favourite bit….The Green Canal.

Upon arrival there was only a couple of rings and a couple of life jackets. I explained that it was bad form to remove all of the buoyancy aids from one end and that as it was Chloe's birthday and her idea to boot, that she could have all the fun she could handle by doing the Green Canal a few times to retrieve more rings from the other end.

Knowing that we would be standing around shortly to play with the camera I suggested we warm up by popping to the Rising for a visit.

Warmed back up we headed down the Abyss and made our way up the pitch to Dali's Delight. A very unusual area filled with odd shaped rock, a maze of passageways and numerous avens. We spent quite some time exploring this unique area of the system and it was only when the girls begun to complain of starting to chill down again that we made our way out.
Taking the normal route out we were soon back at the car park where we were feasted upon by the midges!

Chloe at The Green Canal

Chloe at the head of the pitch at Dali's Delight

Jess admires the unusually sculpted rock

Present: Jess Burkey, Chloe Burney & Mark Burkey

First time leaders in Dan Y Ogof

Jess and I have been waiting for the weather to be in our favour to lead our first trip in to Dan Yr Ogof for a while now.
Seeing the decent forecast for the weekend we invited Ian, Andy W and Mel to come along as our Guinea Pigs to drag around the system.
The lakes had a little froth on the top from where they had been sumped the week before but water levels were normal. Jess took the lead and we did the normal round trip route taking in all the usual highlights as we made our way around the crawls, climbs, canal and stunning formations that make DYO one of the must do trips in the UK. After 4 hrs of caving we emerged in to a dry and sunny day. Having just missed the cafe we headed to the SWCC head quarters where Mr Marris had a much appreciated cuppa waiting for us.

Mel at the Crystal Pool

Andy in Flabbergasm Oxbow

Ian traversing the Crystal Pool

Mel in Cloud Chamber

Present: Andy Williams, Mel Bell, Ian Millward, Jess Burkey and Mark Burkey

Dan Yr Ogof - Squeezes and crawls

This was the first trip for Loz into DYO. We planned to go off the beaten track a little on the way in to take some photos, but mud got into the shutter button on Brendan's camera so we did not come away with the photos we planned to take. We had spent quite some time exploring on the way in, so did not complete the round trip and only went as far as Cloud Chamber. We were out just in time for tea and cakes in the showcave coffee shop.

Present: Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris

Dan Yr Ogof Round Trip

Dan Yr Ogof Round Trip

Chloe had been dying to get in to Dan Yr Ogof ever since she’d discovered a love for water in White Scar on our Yorkshire club outing, so when Brendan suggested it as an option for Sunday she jumped at the chance. Jess and I needed one more trip to cement navigation of some of the main routes and so tagged along as model and lighting donkey respectively.

Jess took the lead and did a sterling job leading through the lakes, a short stop in to take a look at the impressive Straw chamber before shuffling our way through the Long Crawl. After traversing around the Chrystal Pool we popped up to Flabbergasm Oxbow where Chloe and Jess had a little fun with the slippery slope. On we trekked through the Grand Canyon and Monk Hall before spending some time taking in the beauty of Cloud Chamber.

Next up was probably Chloe’s favourite, the Green Canal. Donning a jacket and ring she was soon in her element sploshing along through the canal with us trying to keep up. We took a quick detour to The Rising and paused for a few pictures on the return before making our way down The Abyss and under the Camels Hump. We were soon making our way through the impressively formed Bakerloo Straight, past the Washing Machine and retraced our steps through the long crawl and out. A fantastic cave which Jess managed to navigate without issue and a great way to finish the weekend!

Jess in Go Faster Passage

 

 

 

 

 

Jess just past Go Slower Passage

Present: Mark Burkey, Jessica Harding, Chloe Burney & Brendan Marris

Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

A trip to the Far North of Dan Yr Ogof is one finest caving trips you can take. Almost all visitors will take the Left Hand Series following the massive passages to visit the Far North Chokes at the end. In doing this the smaller sized passages of the Right Hand Series are missed which take the cave further north that the other branch. We decided on this trip to make our target the end of the passages on the Right Hand Series and ignore the larger passages on the standard route. Knowing that the passages in our target area were smaller than those of the other branch we took a lightweight (1 Pelicase) camera kit with us. Starting into the cave at 8.30am we made good time to the Starting Gate, the point where the two route diverge. We followed the water coming from the Right Hand branch and soon following a much smaller passage, crawling over fallen blocks. The passage was mostly low with a section of flat out crawling before the stream was regained and we crawled along a small tube over the stream in a rift. After 150m of mixed caving we broke out into a larger stream passage which was quite pleasant for 100m or so. Ice Cream Aven was explored on the left while stream inlets were followed on both sides until they choked or emerged from avens. A climb up and a traverse led to the final section of this branch of the cave where a hole in the floor of a chamber led to a large passage with sand chokes at the lower end and a boulder choke upstream.

Jess viewing formations in the Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Jess viewing formations in the Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Mark viewing formations in the Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Mark viewing formations in the Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Jess viewing formations in the Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Jess in Ice Cream Aven - Right Hand Series - Dan Yr Ogof

Back at the car park after 12 hours underground we were eaten alive by the midges.

Present: Brendan Marris, Mark Burkey, Jessica Harding and Richard Frost

Dan Yr Ogof - No Man's Land

In our relentless pursuit of the most horrid place known to man, Keith and myself took up the opportunity to join a trip into No Man's Land. I had seen the entrance to this unsurveyed part of the cave, and never had the bottle to squeeze my way into it, it just looked too horrid. We joined Richard, Jon and Mike on our our way into the cave, carrying all manner of photographic gear and arrived at the body sized mud filled tube that is the entrance to this area with a little trepidation. Quickly through the tube we dropped into a flat out gravel floored bedding plane that proved a tight fit to get through, but soon we were in a quite impressive sized passage.

Keith near the start to No Man's Land.

Keith near the start to No Man's Land.

A couple of photos were taken here before we climbed up into a hole in the roof to look at the high level passages, three routes led off at this level, one passage led off to a fork with formations in one branch and a crystal pool floor in the other that prevented progress, one passage closed down into a too tight passage and the third led to the bottom of a blasted upward trending rift passage. Ascending this final passage led to a chamber with a small stream passage entering and a calcited aven above a choke at the other end. The aven was climbed by Keith to find no ways on, but at it's base a small passage could possibly be engineered to make progress. A route was followed through the calcited boulders at the bottom of the aven to and area that could be dug, but no significant draft was felt. Back in the chamber the small stream passage was followed to an ascending loose choke to break out into a small chamber with a large loose choke running down the whole side of the chamber, this would be a serious long term dig. Back in the main passage at the start of the series of passages we headed up to take a look at the choke. Near the choke Brendan and Keith looked at a bedding plane in the roof, several rocks were persuaded to move out the way before Brendan slowly inched his way in clearing a path by moving the loose boulders and zig zagging past the once that were calcited in. Eventually this led to a too tight stream inlet and the challenge was now to reverse out doing the zig zag maneuvers backwards. A good ten minutes were spent doing a very good impression of someone stuck, before an exit was made.

See more Dan Yr Ogof photos here

Present: Brendan Marris and Keith Edwards

Dan-yr-Ogof Round Trip

It was third time lucky for me and Evan from NWCC as 'Danny' had been flooded on our last two attempts. To ensure that we really appreciated the beauty of Dan-yr-Ogof, Brendan and Keith took us into the Syphon Series first. Or was it to remind us of some North Wales Caves? Or to tone down my bright orange and blue Newquay-surfer wetsuit? Or revenge for the OHA-to-the-sump trip? Anyway, with water levels low, the ducks were easy to pass but the place is a mud bucket! We came out looking like the Black & White Minstrels.

Evan and I ooed and aahhed our way around the usual sights, Straw Chamber, Cloud Chamber and Flabergasm Oxbow, where I was worried that I would somehow manage to trip, catch or otherwise break the long straw column. It looks so delicate, but it's calcite, so hey, you could probably belay of it.
The Long Crawl was not as long as I had imagined and has a lovely draft. On the other hand, the Green Canal was longer, 300ft and the water is very, very cold but I was toasty in my wetsuit. It is difficult to swim and the idea is to bounce off the edges, preferable without puncturing your inner tube floatation aid and sinking into the bottomless void. The others got fed up of me singing 'Aqua Marina' (from Stingray, for those of you born after the 1960s) but the acoustics are fab.


I had to traverse Go Slower Passage four times with Keith saying 'look professional' and me trying not to laugh and not to fall into the void below but he filmed Evan in the Long Crawl, so I don't know how many times he made him do that in the interests of 'Art'. The video clip is up for a very short while on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/dcrtuk.


On the way out, we became a 'Cave Refuse Team' and brought out old hosepipe and other rubbish which had been left in a neat pile for any volunteers going out. It was fun pushing and pulling it through the long crawl particularly for Brendan, who brought out twice as much as the rest of us.


The cave is a succession of beautiful black limestone, unusual passages, great climbs, scrambles, contortions and traverses. Thanks Keith and Brendan and can we go again please? I was just kidding about the belay : )


More photos of Dan Yr Ogof can be seen here


Present: Brendan Marris, Evan Kinsey, Heather Simpson & Keith Edwards

Heather

Dan Yr Ogof - Rottenstone Avens

Rottenstone Avens, named the Minuteman Silo by the original explorers, are a pair of immense interconnected avens, that are passed through on the route to the Rising. These were originally climbed in 1970 to reach what was intriguingly referred to as a "floorless chamber". Recently these avens have been reclimbed by Richard Frost in his quest to explore the higher level leads in DYO. At the top of the avens, the "floorless chamber" has a fantastic flat roof that is covered with a multitude of straws and stalactites, that Richard wanted to be photographed. The plan was to climb the avens, photograph the roof and then go and look for a "strange area" that was reported by Dave Judson and Glyn Edwards after their visit in August 1970  to contain a vast array of impressive helictites, blue and green tinted aragonite and gypsum formations.
At the top of the pitches a loose mud and boulder slope rises up to the fantastically decorated roof. At the top of the slope you have a commanding view of this "floorless chamber". We stood motionless at the top as the party climbed the aven one by one, to ensure that no rocks were sent hurtling down the 30m aven to the cavers below. Once all up, I tried to take a photograph of the roof. The camera refused to play and no matter what I did to it or what mode it was set in, even removing the battery and memory card would not shake it into life, so the photography was knocked on the head. An old hawser rope installed by Judson and Edwards dropped down the mud and rock slope to a narrow mud and boulder bridge that led to a larger ascending slope on the opposite side of the chamber. A belay was set up and Richard was lifelined across the top of this abyss, where at the other side he placed an anchor so a good rope could be installed to protect the crossing.  At the other side the slope rose another 30 feet above the level of the roof to lead to an area where two alcoves containing the magnificent formations were located. Gareth and Keith followed to join Richard in the exploration of this part of the chamber. An array of formations unlike those seen anywhere else in Dan Yr Ogof were found, but no sight of the blue and green tinted formations mentioned in the 1970 report could be located. 


Present: Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Richard and Gareth

Dan Yr Ogof

Now this in my opinion is a cracking cave with plenty of variety. The trip starts off by entering the lakes which are quite deep - up to your neck if you're lucky, and if you're not and you're short then you best learn to swim. Once you're through the lakes the rest of the cave is fairly straightforward: walking, climbing and of course the Long Crawl – which wasn’t too bad. The best part for me was the 'Green Canal'. This is a notorious tackle eater where more than one person from our club is known to have lost tackle. This obstacle is tackled by wearing an inner tube and swimming or bouncing your way off the walls to the far end - Great fun.
The adventure didn’t end after we had left the cave and were on our way home either, but that's a story for another day!

Approaching the rising

The Battleship

Cascade in the Lower Series

Go Slower Passage

The team: KeEd, AnGr (report), BrMa & MeWa
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvMThnBCQ-0