Pant Mawr Pot - It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet

With the prospect of a little sunshine we made our plan to visit Pant Mawr Pot, to top up our vitamin D levels on the long walk to the cave.
The sun came out as promised, but there was a cold sharp wind, and so clad in hats and buffs we made our way over the hills towards Pant Mawr. An hour later we arrived at the shakehole and started to kit up and rig the pitch. Mark rigged and was then followed by Loz and Chloe to meet a sheep at the bottom that had made a rather unplanned descent. Was the sheep simply stunned? Was it resting? or was it pining for the fjords? Chloe declared that it was in fact an ex-sheep.

Chloe and Loz viewing the Sabre.

Chloe and Loz viewing the Sabre.

We headed into the cave and spent some time taking photos in the Chapel before heading down to the sump.

Chloe in the Chapel - Pant Mawr Pot.

Loz at the Fire Hydrant - Pant Mawr Pot.

On our return we took photos at several locations arriving back at the pitch at 6pm. After taking photos, prussiking back up and derigging we were heading back to Penwyllt at 7.30pm.

The Entrance Pitch.

7 hours underground with an hour walk each way made this a rather long day out.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jessica Harding, Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris

Nedd Fechan Caves - A Bridge Too Far

Cave 1 - Bridge Cave
The first cave of the day was Bridge Cave, were we spent a little time exploring the small passages above the rock bridge at the end of the cave.

Loz in West Passage - Bridge Cave.

Cave 2 - Pwll Y Rhyd
A cave I had not visited before, but as it was dry we dropped down into the giant chasm that is Pwll Y Rhyd. From here we explored all the dry passages on each side of the pot. A cave that we will return to to take some photos including exploring the low gravel floored crawls that lead to the other side of the White Lady Sump.

Loz in north section of Pwll Y Rhyd.

Cave 3 - White Lady Cave
A quick trip into White Lady cave - heading down to the sump and then returning via the higher level passage.

Formations in White Lady Cave.

Cave 4 - Town Drain
A trip to the end of the cave, plus a little while spent exploring the inlet passage and then exiting via the smaller of the entrances that pops out directly opposite the main entrance to White Lady Cave.

Shower inlet in Town Drain Cave.

Loz exiting Town Drain Cave.

After leaving Town Drain we headed downstream along the gorge for some distance before heading up the bank and taking the footpath above back to the cars.

Present: Mark Burkey, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris

Fault Aven Series - Playing Hide and Seek

We headed off with tackle, camera and video gear to the Fault Aven Series in Cwm Dwr. On the way in we played a game of hide and seek with the tackle bag in the Cwm Dwr Choke. After Half an hour Keith was declared the winner of the game and so we headed off to our target. We split and headed to regroup an the confluence before making our way to the First River Chamber and then the climb up to the Fault Aven Series.

The pull through worked well and we are soon up in the high level passages. Not being able to make sense of where we were in relation to the survey we headed off following our noses until we had some notion of our whereabouts. Mark and Keith crossed a very large hole to inspect the Fault Aven itself while Jess and Brendan too some photos of the impressive false floor.

We then retraced our steps and headed in the opposite direction to find H Junction and explore the passages that radiate off it. Mark and Keith found the Pom Pom after a long section of traverses and took some video before returning.

We will return with some additional tackle and photograph Fault Aven and Pom Pom Passage on a future trip.

Magnificent False floor in the Fault Aven Series.

H Junction - Fault Aven Series.

Formations - Fault Aven Series.

Formations - Fault Aven Series.

Formations - Fault Aven Series.

Present: Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey, Jessica Harding and Brendan Marris

Exploring The Nave, OFD II

After a strenuous but rewarding trip to the extremities of Dan Yr Ogof on Easter Sunday, we met with an excited Chloe Monday morning for our planned trip to The Nave to practice her SRT and explore the other proposed route for a future exchange trip with Pendulum Passage.
Taking the easiest route to get there, as we were all carrying kit bags. Chloe went ahead, navigating very well to the Corkscrew, along Salubrious and past the Trident and Judge.
Again the rigging guide wasn’t always accurate, but rigging was fairly straight forward. As we descended to the first chamber we were awestruck by the gorgeous formations that came into view. After some well deserved photos we continued along the passage, down some interesting climbs and descended the second pitch, where again we were rewarded with amazingly beautiful formations.




Chloe admiring formations in the Nave

 

The third pitch dropped us into the second oxbow of the stream way. Mark wanted to find the end of Pendulum passage, upstream, so we set off through the water, Chloe jumping happily into the first pot she found. After a few minutes, Mark stopped and looked confused. “Hang on Donkeys, which way is the water flowing?” Yes, we’d been happily splashing our way downstream!


Once we’d turned around, Mark quickly found Pendulum passage, and happy that he’d connected the dots for a future return we started back up the pitches.



Jess on the 2nd pitch

 Chloe made easy work of the SRT and also all the awkward climbs up on the way back, but by the time we were making our way out we’d been underground for seven hours and we were all feeling the weight of the kit bags.

A really good trip and far more beautiful than we had expected!

OFD2 - Up Swamp Creek Without A Paddle

This was a trip planned to introduce Becca and Paul to caving with Dudley Caving Club with a circular trip around OFD Top Entrance. Our plan was nearly foiled before we got underground after it took two people to unfreeze the lock to gain access to the cave.
We first headed to Big Chamber Near The Entrance then across and along to Bagpipe Chamber. From here we headed to the top of Arete Chamber where some photos were taken and then on to the Corkscrew Climb via the Wedding Cake. We took the sandy crawls at the bottom of the Corkscrew Climb to lead us to Swamp Creek, where Mark and Keith tried out the traverses upstream and Brendan took some photos with the rest of the party.

Paul in the sandy passages near Swamp Creek.

Becca in the sandy passages near Swamp Creek.

Paul at the formations in Swamp Creek.

From Swamp Creek we headed past the Judge and Trident to the follow Salubrious Passage to Maypole Inlet. Once across Maypole Inlet we had a look at the climb down and then headed to Cross Rift. With time on our side we then headed to Midnight Passage so Keith could take Mark along the first section of the Midnight Traverses.

The team in the chamber in Midnight Passage

The return leg of the journey took us to Shatter Pillar and Selenite Tunnel and across President's Leap. Once at the Crossroads we headed up Salubrious Passage to make a standard exit via White Arch.

Jessica crossing President's Leap.

Paul on the short traverse in Salubrious Passage.

Present: Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey, Jessica Harding, Paul Hayes, Becca Rawlinson and Brendan Marris

A trip to Pendulum Passage

Mark and I met with Brendan at South Wales Caving Club on Friday morning, and after some deliberation around the teapot decided to go and explore Pendulum Passage in OFD II.


Brendan decided on a short cut via Chasm passage. Rigging a handline, Mark free climbed. Having a little more sense and as we were carrying SRT kits anyway, Brendan and I abseiled down after him.

Half way along The Chasm Brendan started chuckling as he realised we were approaching a particular climb up, which I had dubbed the “stupid f***ing ladder climb” during a previous trip where I had numerous attempts at climbing it, only to Tarzan-swing back down the hand line - finally demanding a ladder!
Of course this time there was no ladder…

I eventually got up with help from Mark and Brendan and my jammers, but still not happy with the climb!

Arriving at Pendulum passage I was the only one already wearing SRT kit so went ahead and rigged the first pitch. The bits of tat provided for deviations bore no relation to the rigging guide we had but I continued anyway, finding that the rope length suggested was only just enough to reach the bottom. Unfortunately I rigged one of the deviations far too short, which tested Mark and completely confused Brendan!

Continuing along past many awkward climbs and 2 more short pitches we reached an exposed climb down to the stream way which had been our objective of the trip in preparation of a possible exchange with the Nave in the future. Going back up, prussiking past my short deviation again proved quite a challenge!

Once out of the Crevasse we went to explore nearby passages of the Nynth Bran area. One section opened out on an exposed ledge way up in the roof of Chasm passage. Mark, of course, had to go off squirreling “I’ll just see if this is climbable…” and found it far more difficult to get back!

We retraced our steps, with me struggling AGAIN down the “stupid f***ing ladder climb”, and when we got back to the handline to climb up out of Chasm, Brendan and I took one look and put our SRT kits back on. Mark however, being Mark, decided to free climb up… Brendan swore at one point he saw his bottom lip quiver and Mark all but grip the line with his teeth as he went past the overhang. Prussicking up the 9mm dynamic rope attached to rusty-looking bolts wasn’t much less scary though…

Jessica in Chasm Passage.

A thoroughly enjoyable trip and a good start to our Easter Long Weekend of Caving!

Present: Jess Harding, Mark Burkey, Brendan Marris

Electronic T Card System

The electronic system running on a laptop computer powered
from the vehicles auxiliary power socket.

I think that I have now completed all of the development work for the first release (beta) version.
I've created a website using my personal web space at http://dudleycc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ where I've made the system available as a 60 day time limited download.
The latest enhancements are:

1. I've added another box to the status screen - number stood down. The background to this turns green when this equals the number deployed.
2. A secure front end has been added. Users enter their team name which then saves the workbook branded to the team. The system will then work for 60 days. After this it needs to be registered to unlock it.
3. Instructions for importing team members and equipment are included.
4. The incident log is now locked down so that entries cannot be tampered with.

If you have a few minutes feel free to have a play with it and let me know if you manage to break it.