Tag Archives: Ogof Draenen

Ogof Draenen – To The Reactor and Camping 20th-21st October 2023

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Dai MacDonald
Gareth Farr

Gareth and I have spoken quite a bit about prospecting in Ogof Draenen, and cave camping, so we thought it about time we ticked them both off.
Friday afternoon arrived and we were running late, nothing new for us. We’d arranged a drop off and pick up, and ended up being dropped off for 4:30. Wasting no time we kitted up, swung our bags onto our backs and headed to the entrance. We kept repeating “we just need to take our time to make sure we don’t get soaked from sweat”, but in no time at all we were both sweating profusely from pushing and pulling the fully loaded bags. Just as we got to the end of perseverance II one of the straps broke on the club’s bag that I was using, possibly from the long dragging section. It wasn’t too bad to manage first of all, but it definitely put me off balance while trying to navigate the boulder floors.
It didn’t take long for us to get through elliptic passage once out of rift chamber, and when we got to the lucky thirteen series we had a break to rehydrate and have a quick snack. Refueled we headed down the sandy passage, but soon got back to the boulder floor of gone with the wind. It seems to be that the further into Ogof Draenen you get, the better the formations get, just so many pretty passages along the way here.
By now we were starting to tire, and our bags felt heavy, but we still had a good bit of distance to cover. Navigation was going well, and we were at the snowball and thinking of our next stop. We looked around a little for the way onto black run, and agreed on a route we both thought was the way. On a normal trip it’s not to bad going the wrong way, but having to carry the heavy bags as well, it really took a lot of effort turning around, or reversing out. Luckily we were right, and we were going through black run looking for the hole to take us to lost in space.
Once again the formations were just amazing, but that didn’t take away from the heavy loads which seemed to be getting heavier, especially through the crawl sections in lost in space, and the short constriction at the end of the passage. It was about this point that Gareth started getting severe cramps in a few different muscles, and at that point he had no idea they’d last right through until the next day.
Past the crawls we found ourselves at a choke looking for the way on, and after looking at the survey we realised it was a climb. I backtracked a couple of metres and found the way into Intergalactic Overdraught. I climbed up and into the passage, and crawled along for a few metres just to check it went on before calling Gareth. This passage takes a few turns before climbing down where it re meets the main passage.
Feeling like we could’ve just lay down there, we stopped for a drink just before the washing machine and the Camberwell carrots, and we’re ready for the last push.
It’s an impressive chamber that leads to a boulder slope into the reactor, but it’s immediately trumped by the reactor. A huge wall covered in blue green flow stone, and a chamber that just swallows the light in almost every direction, just huge!
From here we basically double backed on ourselves into a passage which runs parallel to the one we just left, we entered destiny inlet. Gareth’s cramps were beginning to get really bad, we just kept telling ourselves “we’ll be having a brew and grub in no time”. The route through, over, and around the huge boulders made me feel quite small and vulnerable, but I think that was partly fatigue as well. Almost along the entirety of this passage there are old stal tucked away in the walls, before coming to an area where the passage narrows, and there’s loads of old stal and columns, as well as some really pretty helictites.
This was our campsite for the night, some flat slabs that had dropped off the ceiling, quite a stretch from the idyllic flat sandy floor next to a little stream I stupidly had in my head. We didn’t hang around getting the brew kit and MREs out. To fill up water we had to go about 30 metres back down the passage to a small area that the stream is showing through the boulders. We filtered drinking water, but for cooking and cuppas we just boiled it.
Not long after eating I was hit with excruciating toothache, so I wasn’t the best company. Still we sat in our sleeping bags chatting for a while before calling it a day. Gareth went to sleep still with really bad muscle cramps.

Through the night my sleep was constantly broken, it was really uncomfortable, and each time I’d turn over it would hurt my hips and wake me. Gareth on the other hand woke around 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep for a while due to still having muscle cramps.
We both woke up quite late around 9ish. I was wrapped in my sleeping bag with my hat over my face, and couldn’t work out why I couldn’t see my watch for the time when I first woke up.
Confusion over, we once again got the brew kits out, and started making breakfast and a cuppa.
We both agreed, with the time set for callout, and how tiring the journey was, we should just start the journey back out around 11:30. By this point I’d remembered I had an isotonic drink sachet, so Gareth had that, and his muscle cramps finally started to ease. We sat in our sleeping bags and had breakfast, and some snacks to fuel up, and obviously a few cuppas before packing our kit up. While sitting chatting we heard some stones flaking off the ceiling, we both paused to question what it was, and again more flaked off. We didn’t talk about it much as there was nothing we could do, other than start packing. I’d mentioned how uneasy the ceiling made me feel when we first got to the camp, but dismissed it as me just being tired and irrational…obviously not though!
We were both dreading getting kitted up again, thinking it was going to be freezing and damp, but it was way less uncomfortable than we thought, so pretty quickly we were ready to start the journey out.
It was around 12 when we started walking, and once again we were amazed with the formations, and the imposing boulder covered passage. It didn’t take long to warm up, and start getting too hot again. The bags were lighter, but not much. Navigation went really well until the junction for mid winter chambers, we went straight on instead of right. We must’ve gone up there for about 30-50 metres before realising we’d gone the wrong way, but it wasn’t too bad of a crawl.
We did well on time, and didn’t have to stop anywhere near as much as the way in.
Exiting the cave felt amazing, just knowing that we didn’t need to push or pull the bags anymore…it was just that bloody steep hill to contend with now. We made contact to stand down the callout, and sort our lift, before taking a well earned lay down on some soft grass in the afternoon sun.
We were just shy of 24 hours underground when we exited the cave.
The main thing I took from this trip was, always bring a sleeping mat, and hydrate more.

Ogof Draenen – Sunday 8th May 2022

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Dai MacDonald
Gareth Farr
Peter lamb

By Dai MacDonald

We started the day joking about Gareth’s forgetfulness, and it definitely set the tone for the day! As we’re pulling off the A465 at Brynmawr, to collect the key from Barry, Gareth says “I think I’ve forgotten my helmet”, which also means his torch as well. We collected the key, and then heading back to Merthyr Tydfil to collect Gareth’s helmet, we were on our way again, with Gareth reassuring us “I’ve got my batteries, because I charged them last night” he didn’t have his batteries, he’d forgotten them as well, but I’ve got spares so it was fine. After changing we like a cuppa and cigarette before getting going, Gareth had also forgotten his tobacco!

We quickly headed for the entrance as we were all starting to get quite hot in our caving gear. This was Peter’s first trip into a gated system and instantly he was shocked with how tight the entrance was. We made great progress through the entrance as we talked Peter through certain sections, and finally helped show the technique needed for the entrance pitch. Before we knew it we’d signed the log book at 12:30, and Gareth and I were trying to convince Peter he should try Beer Challenge, on his own, and we’ll meet him in White Arch Passage, he declined our challenge! We made it to Indiana Highway in a good time, and got straight into it after a drink stop. As we got to the end of the traverse, someone said they’d forgotten their phone and snacks at the start of the traverse….so Gareth headed back to the start of the traverse line to retrieve his stuff, fortunately this was the last time he forgot something….that day! We made our way to the junction for Megadrive and Megadrive North, and headed to Megadrive North, and then back down Canyon North to the guano pile at the start of Canyon West. After this we headed for Siambre Ddu passage, where we were all coming up with different pronunciations for Siambre. We got back to Megadrive and continued towards the Nunnery, where we detoured to Arms Park through Perseverance II, just to show Peter the way on to the other parts of the cave. Once done we headed back out in good time, and in time to enjoy the sun while changing. Overall it was a great trip, especially for Peter, who is keen to find out more about becoming a club member.

Ogof Draenen Sunday 3rd April 2022

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Dai MacDonald
Gareth Farr

We started our day full of beans ready for the round trip, and had decided we’d try some alternative routes to the usual ones.

We got in for around 11:05 and made steady progress through the entrance while getting good footage. We made it to Cairn Junction and headed for a bad decision, Beer Challenge! We just wanted to see for ourselves what it’s like, and I’m happy to take Wonderbra any other time now. After this the trip went great all the way through Lamb and Fox Chamber, Indiana Highway, Megadrive to St David’s hall, then the survey came out for Squirrel Rifts. This was another route we wanted to try, rather than Agent Blorenge II. Once at the two climbs, at the end of Squirrel Rifts, we got a little confused where the way on was, but soon found the climbs and made our way down them. The squeeze to get into Haggis Basher is surprisingly demanding and I struggled with my bag and bottle through there. We had a look along the passage, to the choke and then back on ourselves to head for far Agent Blorenge and Chocolate Blorenge, by this point the both of us were feeling quite fatigued after the crawling. We carried on towards the sewers, thinking we’d done the hardest bits, but soon found ourselves at a hole dropping down in a rift that I tried to pass through but felt it was too tight, we looked for an “eyehole” that’s shown on the map, but not even knowing what an eyehole is, and both being on our last battery, we decided to head back the way we’d come. Instantly I was filled with dread just thinking of the two climbs we faced to get out of Haggis Basher, as I’m not the most confident with heights. When we got to the squeeze out of Haggis Basher, we searched the survey for an alternative route to no avail, so pushed through to the climbs. I went first, both no problems with the first, but on the second the exposure got to me, and when I climbed it the first time I didn’t go high enough to climb out and convinced myself I couldn’t do it, but spotted a climb in the opposite end of the small rift, which I could then traverse across the top. I climbed up confidently and found myself on a small solid ledge so stopped to look where to go, panic set in rapidly and I felt extremely exposed, so I climbed to the top of the passage where there was a small dead end tube I could sit in. I shouted down to Gareth “I’m stuck, I can’t down climb from here and I can’t make that traverse”, he could see nothing from the bottom, so he decided to try the climb where I tried first. He climbed up, passed the opening confidently and easily into squirrel rifts, while I’d quietly been having a panic attack, thinking to myself “what’ve you done Dai, you idiot! This is cave rescue now”. Gareth started suggesting things while I told him “I’m stuck bro, I can’t go anywhere”, then I’m the next breath, “just let me calm down and I’ll get across the traverse now”, and continually switching between the two for about two minutes. I asked Gareth to turn his light down because it was blinding me, and by the time he looked back I was across the traverse. Once I’d calmed myself the traverse out was actually really easy. From here we headed for Agent Blorenge II to save on time as we were running out of it. The rest of the trip went fine and we were out before we knew it, making the long walk back to the car.

Pork Pies at The Lamb and Fox Chamber Draenen. Trig and Gareth Rex Jones – 5th August 2018

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The original plan today was to do the Daren to Cnwc through trip but Tom had to drop out so a short trip into Draenen was planned instead.

The day started at the shop with a quick chat with Brent whilst I got the key and soon after I was meeting up with Gareth at Pwll Du who seemed to be doing his own ‘Car Pool Karaoke’ shortly after with a text from Barry begging him to stop.

We quickly (well Gareth did, I took ages) got ready and had a chat with some walkers (who were ex cavers from the Mendips) on the sheer size of Draenen. We plodded off to the entrance, emptied bladders and slipped into the fun of the entrance series stopping for pictures in the dug shafts and at the knotted climb.

Enjoying the cool breeze from the lungs of Draenen

Enjoying the cool breeze from the lungs of Draenen

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We signed in and noticed there hadn’t been many visits as of late or people are opting to not sign in….

Next stop would be the Wonderbra Bypass and then on-wards to Tea Junction where a break, much-needed drink and a general marvel at the huge passage decorated with straws on just one part of the roof. I’ve taken enough pictures of this famous place before so I decided we should press on.

Next was White Arch passage, another massive (in size) passage of the cave with huge and slippy boulder break down everywhere but an impressive place. We proceeded at leisurely pace stopping often to notice other small passages high up and low down always triggering the exploration styled questions of ”has anyone been there and if they have, where does it go?” a cave still with lots of secrets to give up. We went underneath White Arch itself and stopped for a photo.

White Arch Passage

White Arch Passage

White Arch

White Arch

Carrying on we arrived at the choke which leads into Lamb & Fox Chamber ”two pints of Butty Bach please” I shouted but no reply from the barman (can’t get the staff these days) we sat down and cracked open our packed lunch of pork pies which Gareth had the added extra of gummy bears and pepperami! We sat stuffing our faces just taking in the sheer size of some of the boulders which have just peeled off the wall, leading to more questions ”when?” and ”when again”

Before we left we decided to climb up a level into the muddy traverses of Indiana Highway and stopped short before the deep pitch to the left.

CAMERA

Lamb and Fox chamber

Indiana Highway

Indiana Highway

We exited the same way noticing on the way back how low the water levels were which prompted a quick trip down Beyond a Choke streamway to see just a mere trickle.

White Arch passage on our way out

White Arch passage on our way out

Some ''hanging death''

Some ”hanging death”

Gareth opened the gate and instantly I could feel the heat shooting down to me further in the entrance such was the weather outside!

A good short trip to waste away a saturday, home for kebab and pizza.

Ogof Draenen, Thursday 17th May 2018

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Gareth Jones, Huw Jones and Dave Gledhill

By Gareth Jones
Photos Huw Jones

So the club have been reminding me of my lack of trip reports, having been on a few cave trips now, and after a gentle Thursday night stroll into Draenen, I feel obliged to write my first.

With my much publicised fear of heights, the plan was to see if I would cry and retreat from the first pitch (“that’s as big as a 4 storey building!”), not far from Cairn junction.

The evening began with Dave picking me up and driving to the car park opposite the Lamb and Fox pub. We started to kit up whilst waiting for Huw to arrive. Huw arrived promptly after us, and together we made our dangerous descent down the steep hill to the gated entrance. On the way Huw told us tales of the initial dig and discovery.

At the entrance, I was lucky to unlock the gate and open the hatch, to be blasted by the incredible draught that departed the unassuming crack in the rock that first drew cavers to dig there.

So, the climb down began. Through a series of flat out crawls, and descents through scaffolded vertical shafts. We emerged into the streamway with much cursing as I received a thorough soaking in the freezing waters. A slot through and under a waterfall brought us down to the initial breakthrough. More tales from Huw about the night the breakthrough occurred. In front of us the ‘Darling Rifts’ continued, while the easy way on was through a crawl in the floor to the right. Of course, Huw wanted us to have the original experience the first discoverers had, so we proceeded through the ‘Darling Rifts’. “Oh darling!”, I was very apprehensive and did not look down, the whole time wondering why we didn’t just go the easy way. At the end of a rift, we climbed down to the left and emerged in a big chamber with a boulder as big as Australia blocking the way on. A climb under the boulder brought us to a huge hole in the floor. The ‘Big Bang Pitch’, the original way on into the cave. After a few more tales, we headed into the Gyracanthus Loop and Psammodus Passage, to see amazing fossils of sharks and Jurassic sea life.

We headed back into the rifts, as I was not feeling the ‘Big Bang Pitch’ tonight (maybe next time…), to emerge back into the entrance series, and continue the ‘easy way’ into the cave. After some more cascades and crawls we emerged on to the top of the 4 storey pitch. To say I was underwhelmed was an understatement. It was a 4m climb down with a knotted hand line. So, I tightened my belt, and followed Dave down the climb, which was no where near as bad as I had scared myself into believing. Feeling like action man at the bottom, I tried not to think about the return climb.

We continued on and headed to the first major chamber, ‘Cairn Junction’, and I signed us into the log book. Job done. Or so I thought.

We decided to explore a bit more of the cave. Continuing downstream, through the ‘Wonderbra’, and ‘Tea Junction’, we headed up ‘Gilwern Passage’. I was struggling to stay on my feet for looking at the amazing passage and formations all around, and not at my feet and the path ahead. We stopped for pictures at the bigger formations and decided to turn back at an impressive inlet flowing in from an aven in the roof.
After we arrived back to the junction, we followed the ‘Beyond a Choke Streamway’ downstream. An impressive streamway, with deep pots, and traverses. After what felt like a few miles, Huw reminded me that we weren’t even a quarter of the way to the end of the streamway. With that, we decided to turn back, as it was getting late, and begin the ascent out the cave.

We arrived promptly back at the log book and signed out. We decided to take the easy way back out the cave, instead of ‘Darling Rifts’. At the foot of the 4m pitch, we climbed up with ease, and made our way back into the wet entrance series. I received another soaking at the slot in the waterfall, with the flow going down my neck into my oversuit. After ascending up the scaffolded shafts and through the flat out crawls, we popped out the hatch into the dark, pleasantly fresh, spring night.

We started the dangerous climb back up the steep mountainside, to get back to the cars and change.
A thoroughly enjoyable trip. Although I kept reminding myself that I had barely scratched the surface in Wales’ longest cave system. My lasting thought about Draenen is that it is like climbing a mountain in reverse. When you summit a mountain, the way home is downhill all the way. When you descend into Draenen, the way home is to climb a mountain.

Ogof Draenen Conservation Trip, 17th February 2018

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David Gledhill
Huw Jones
Thomas Williams (Fixed aids officer)
Barry Hill (Hereford CC)
Josh White (Aberystwyth & PDCMG Conservation officer)
Ed (SWCC)

By David Gledhill
Photos by Barry Hill

There’s a massive push to re-tape Draenen in the coming future and 17th Feb was set as date for another re-taping session, this time in the northern passage of the cave through Gilwern and into Forever Changed.

Tom was relieved, as at first thought of doing some conservation trips, he presumed he would be picking up the human poo he discovered down in Haggis Basher a few weeks previously and he had been fretting about which pooper scooper would be sufficient and strong enough to survive a trip in and out whilst scooping up the smelly mars bars.

We all met up at Pwll Du and being a fairly mixed bunch; we introduced ourselves to new faces, got kitted up and packed meters plus meters of conservation tape with new pickets into our tackle sacks. Making good time through the entrance series and into Gilwern we stopped at Giles Shirt to marvel at the formations.

Whilst making our way through Gilwern Passage, Josh showed us the previous few trips’ efforts of re-taping. Reaching the choke into Forever Changed it was here that I discovered that I had probably enjoyed a bit too much steak in France a few weeks previously, as I found it to be tight! Once I had I popped out the other side like a popped champagne cork the taping was in full flow already.

The emphasis was getting the mini stakes and pickets to raise the tape out of the mud and to bring the walkway in slightly, before more people accidentally stepped over, ruining pristine passage. There’s not much more to say on this subject apart from a lot of tape was nicely laid and old tape removed. I’d have to confirm with Josh how much we laid and length of passage covered but I do know we stopped short of the junction leading off to the duck so another trip is needed to finish that off.

Once the tape had run out, an hour or so was spent exploring some of the northern passages in this part of the cave. Possible conservation work was found and most importantly…possible leads? Who knows? On exit from Gilwern Passage an old camp was spotted just before Tea Junction, so it was decided to pack this away but nobody fancied trying the out of date pot noodle!

Outside it was finally a little bit sunny and it wasn’t even raining! Very odd. Great to meet up with some other clubs to look after a special place.

Huw, Dave and Josh

Huw, Dave and Josh

Huw Jones

Huw Jones

Ed and Dave in the distance

Ed and Dave in the distance

Tom, Ed and Dave removing old tape

Tom, Ed and Dave removing old tape

Tom, Dave and Josh

Tom, Dave and Josh

Huw and Tom busy re-taping

Huw and Tom busy re-taping

Some of the finished product

Huw Jones

Huw Jones

Half a Path Re-taped

Half a Path Re-taped

Draenen170218#10

Ogof Draenen Round Trip 3rd December 2017

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Huw Jones
Thomas Williams
Richard Gledhill
David Gledhill

Report by Dave Gledhill.

All photos by Huw Jones.

As per normal drills for a Draenen trip, I turned up to Pwll Du at 0900 and funnily enough, the weather had changed from a lovely dry early winter’s day in the Usk valley floor, to a howling gale with threats of rain. I decided to lead the way by pointing my car into the wind for the inevitable chilly change in/out of kit. I was soon joined by Richard who has the luxury of a van to change and brew up in closely followed by Tom ‘McCrae’ in his Landy. Huw wasn’t far behind and we all convened before getting kitted up. Now it’s worth noting that the last time Huw and Richard had caved together was some 25 years previous and it just goes to show how small a fraternity the South Welsh caving is.

Kitted up within minutes we stomped off to the entrance like we were paid models for ‘Aventure Verticale’ but only better! Gate opened, local’s trees freshly watered and we were in. Forget my previous reports on Draenen, I actually love this entrance series! It’s fun…on the way in anyway.

We were soon at the climb down, but before we continued, Tom did some checks on the fixed aids as part of his checks for the Pwll Du Cave Management Committee. Log book signed, we stomped off from Cairn Junction towards Wonderbra Bypass and further onward towards Tea Junction where we stopped off for a quick water break and collect some rubbish and old kit we had spotted on previous trips. We piled it all up ready to take out on our exit in a few hours.

Conversation was flowing now as usual with mostly expletives from myself when finding those unwanted slippy edges of boulders for which Draenen has many! We boulder hopped our way through White Arch Passage and Lamb & Fox until we reached the Indiana Highway where the expletives swapped from me to Richard as he discovered his new wellies weren’t very grippy on muddy traverses!

We ‘’popped’’ out into Megadrive, I don’t know why but I really like this part of the cave and its always worth stopping to look up, around and behind to see what/how the water has done to create this cave. Heading off into The Nunnery and further onward turning right into Perseverance 2 which is a hands/knees crawl which every time I do it always ends up with my dragging bag getting stuck on something.  Forgot to mention, both The Nunnery and Perseverance are nicely decorated and well worth a very short stop to admire some of the formations.

Perseverance gets larger and we achieved walking status again only for it to suddenly stop at an 8m laddered pitch….and I mean it literally comes out of nowhere. You have two choices at the pitch, a rigid ladder which is getting old and has a few steps missing (so who knows when the others will fall off) or more conventional/safer caving ladder albeit more awkward. Being the brave souls we are we opted for the rigid ladder….purely so the fixed aids officer could do his ‘’checks’’…..obviously.

The pitch drops down into Cardiff Arms Park, an impressive chamber and the way on is pretty much back underneath the pitch and leads into Player’s Tunnel where we encountered some good formations and we stopped for drinks/pictures. Soon after, some more boulder hopping the awe inspiring St. David’s Hall was reached and lunch was called whilst sitting in the marvel of this enormous chamber. It has to be seen to be believed!

Richard Gledhill on Balcony Pitch

Richard Gledhill on Balcony Pitch

Dave and Tom in Player's Tunnel

Dave and Tom in Player’s Tunnel

Tom in Player's Tunnel

Tom in Player’s Tunnel

After lunch the fun starts, being The Round Trip Connection. Now this is where we start to cut across with an end goal of getting into Beyond A Choke Stream to head back out of the cave. To start, we headed into Squirrel Rifts, a notorious part of the cave for navigating with its many choices of different rifts to take and all very much polished by wrong steps before! Thankfully every time I’ve done the Round Trip I’ve been with someone who knows (relatively) the way through and Huw was no exception so no hiccups were encountered. Carrying on through Wooden Spoon we squeezed through quite an awkward sideways rift just before Haggis Basher and I heard swear words a youngest nephew should not hear from his uncle! But I didn’t blame him whatsoever.

Some stunning stals and formations were found in Haggis Basher where we left the bags and headed off to the chokes at the end for a nosey. Tom sadly found a newer formation in the form of a pile of human poo…yeah nice one whoever did that. We had a poke around in the chokes then we went back to collect the bags to head off towards Far Agent Blorenge where pleasant stream walking was encountered and the conversation was back in full flow. Best way I can describe Agent Blorenge is sporting…lots of awkward traverses where Tom was heard to be having fun with his bag getting stuck at every opportunity, a couple of unofficial fixed aid climbs down and also the fun Sewer which is a short duck but with today’s water levels was just a soaking. Towards the end of Agent Blorenge the cascades were met with some interesting climbs down.

Dave admiring stals in Haggis Basher

Dave admiring stals in Haggis Basher

The Beyond A Choke stream way is reached at the end, we took a right, ending the connection, Round Trip and beginning the slog out of the cave. I love this stream way, it changes so much in its length and even has a few boulder chokes chucked in just for good measure and most importantly my favourite formation so far in this cave (I still have much more of this cave to visit) in the form of pure white stalagmite up on higher level of the stream way. It’s very photogenic!

We passed the entrance to Gilwern Passage and checking our watches decided it would have to wait for another day and collected the rubbish from Tea Junction. We exited the cave to more darkness but nice, still weather and the conversation soon changed to what was for tea and what beers were in the fridge.

Cars reached, kit stripped and final few words of the day were shared!

Heres for the next one 😉

Ogof Draenen – Fault Chambers Bolt Climb – 2nd Trip – Saturday 7th Oct 2017

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Tom Williams, Dave Gledhill and Huw Jones

By Huw Jones
Photos – Tom Williams (Taken on his old phone!)

Dave, Tom and I, have been back to complete the climb in the tall but short rift passage, leading off from the southern end of Fault Chambers in Ogof Draenen, after our first trip there in June.

Tea Junction

Tea Junction

Just upstream of Tea Junction

Just upstream of Tea Junction

In the time between the trips, we had decided to start again and try to climb to the lower window in the hope that the rock here was better and that there was a passable way up into the higher window, that we had tried to reach last time.

The rock was mostly good and 7 bolts, plus 1 that seemed to go into some sort of pocket in the rock so wasn’t used, saw me gingerly pulling over the edge into the window, on a boulder that was lying on a slope of loose rock. The window was roughly 2 metres wide by 1 metre high but the rift behind it, that I was now standing in, was longer and about 4-5 metres high. To the South was a narrow rift that rose up and turned a corner so that I couldn’t see to a definite end. At the northern end, was a good sized but short rift, rising steeply up to the other window so there was a passable connection between the windows, after all.

I placed another bolt, nice and high in the back wall of the rift, opposite the window, to rig the ladder from so that the other two could join me. The ladder could then also be used to gain the rift rising to the upper window. This turned out to be the final bolt as the drill died as I was placing it! I rigged the lifeline from the bolt and a natural thread off to one side. The 10m ladder turned out to be too short when rigged directly from the bolt so I had to extend the belay with a long sling.

Dave joined me and waited in the narrow rift to the South, while Tom climbed up. I then suggested, that as he was already on the lifeline, he carry on up to the upper window. The ladder was re-rigged directly from the bolt and after a word of protest as he struggled slightly to leave the top of the ladder and establish himself in the rift, he was up in no time. The news from above wasn’t great. The window / ledge up there was larger than the lower one but there was only one small passage going off, which closed down completely after just 4 metres. Tom took a few photos on his phone(!) (I’d left my camera at the bottom of the climb) and then came back down to where Dave and I were waiting. While Tom had been exploring above, Dave had checked out the small rift to the South, which unfortunately went nowhere. I had a quick look at the upper window as well but where I thought I had seen a tube last time, heading upwards from the northern end, there was nothing! I was glad that we had decided to switch windows, as there was a huge amount of small, loose rock, lying at a precarious angle, that would have had to have been climbed over, to gain the upper window directly.

The ladder was re-rigged again from the sling and Tom climbed down. Dave decided he wanted to abseil so borrowed my Stop (to save weight, I was the only one who had brought an SRT kit) and used the lifeline rope. I pulled up the rope, which had my Stop clipped on the end, then carefully de-rigged everything, lowering it all back down on the lifeline rope, before doubling the rope through the ring hanger on the bolt. Only one bolt I know but it was bomber. I then abbed down, retrieving all the gear used on the climb as I went. When we tried to pull the rope down from the bottom, it snagged. Luckily Dave could still reach the other end and pulled it back a little, to try to release it. We tried this a couple of times before myself and Tom ended up sat on our arses, when the rope suddenly released with a stronger pull!

Derigging the rope from the previous climb

Derigging the rope from the previous climb

While Dave and Tom started packing stuff away, I prusiked up the rope we had left on the other climb last time, to de-rig it, leaving behind another hanger and bolt at our high point. Thankfully the rope was retrieved with no problem, this time. All that was left was to make our way out, carrying a very heavy bag each!

Battery change for Tom and Huw on way out

Battery change for Tom and Huw on way out

So no big discoveries! If you include the windows in the total of what we found at the top of the climb, then the passage amounts to about 15m. If you don’t include the windows, as they are open to the main, big rift passage, then you can halve that! Oh well, on to the next lead! We may take a look down a pitch next but there are also some avens and chokes to check out.