2015: A Year in Trips

A lot happened for SWCC members in 2015! Here are just some of the photographic highlights that I have found from both below and above ground. Here's to an even more active 2016 for all SWCC members.

January

Whisky tasting at the Penderyn distillery, organised by Chloe Francis.

Photos by Vaughan Budd.

Chilly white water rafting at Cardiff’s International White Water centre.

Photos by Stuart Reedman.

14 Swansea University Mountaineering Club members visit SWCC to try out caving. 9 SWCC members supported this visit by helping to lead trips.

February

Provisional Members’ Weekend.
18 people either new cavers or cavers new to SWCC attended this and had a great time. They were supported by an eager and helpful team of 10 current members. A further 5 of our members also helped Southampton University Caving Club find their way around OFD and cave entrances in the Clydach Gorge as well as taking them on a round trip in Dan yr Ogof. Following that trip, it was even possible for one of their members to be signed off as a DYO warden.
Thanks received from Southampton:

I wanted to e-mail to say thank you for your help during our recent visit to the SWCC (13th-15th February 2015).

Although you had your own things going on with your provisional members weekend, it was brilliant that you offered some guides to help us with the OFD through-trip, caves of the Clydach Gorge and Dan-Yr-Ogof. I very much appreciated the time taken to show us some of the lesser visited caves and to help us plan for trips there. I also was grateful for our trip into DYO as I had resigned myself to not being able to visit since an opportunity I had in 2000 where, as a committee member of SUCC, I had to give up my place on the trip so that others could go. We had an excellent weekend and I look forward to caving with some of you again sometime.

The February Yorkshire trip was organised by Gary and Jo. Everyone stayed at the BPC hut, it was raining, there was an Easegill permit, but I can’t find any photos.

March

SRT training at SWCC.
2 days’ worth of training with the help of Helen Hooper and Andy Jones. Saturday was above ground in the quarry and Sunday was in Top Entrance and Pwll Dwfn. 12 members were involved in this.

Whitewalls Weekend.
Staying at Whitewalls. Craig a Ffynnon and the Turkey Streamway in Agen Allwedd were visited. These were new caves for some of the trip members.

   

Mendip Weekend
The Shepton Mallet hut was the base for this and trips in GB and Swildon’s Hole were completed.

Mendips, Upper Flood Swallet
Several members also enjoyed a visit to Upper Flood and took some fantastic photos to show from it.

                     Neverland photos by Mark Burkey.

April

Cantabria, Spain.
The club’s annual pilgrimage to Spain organised by Gary Vaughan. Trips were enjoyed in Gandara -fantastic formations and a first class through-trip and Tonio (15 pitch pull-through trip – almost 300m metres of abseiling) amongst others. If you haven’t been yet, you’ve missed out.

May

AGM and Otter Hole

Before and after pictures at Otter Hole. Photos by Piers Hallihan.

June

Summer Yorkshire meet organised by Jo White.

Photos by Duncan Hornby.

North Wales Mines meet arranged by Allan Richardson.

Photos by Duncan Hornby.

July

Dent de Crolles expedition organised by Gary Vaughan.

Photos by Tony Baker

                                                           Photo by Tony Baker

                                                            Photos by Miri Pihlaja

Via Ferrata in the Dolomites organised by Andrea Lewingdon.

August

Forest of Dean meet
Wet Sink and Miss Grace’s Lane.

Milwr tunnel and climbing in North Wales

Devon meet
Baker’s Pit, Bunker Hole and Reeds Cavern

September

Parys Mountain

Croesor-Rhosydd through trip 

Rich abseiling in to the canoe in the Chamber of Horrors

 SRT training in Yorkshire
This was the second part of the SRT training with Helen Hooper and Andy Jones. Sell Gill, Simpsons and Bull Pot were visited.

Evening trips start
There is currently an active programme of evening trips among local SWCC cavers. Trips take place most weeks, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. All welcome! If you are interested contact assistant_meets_sec@swcc.org.uk to join in.

Photos by Paul Tarrant and Andy and Antonia Freem

October

Box mine

Photo: Duncan Hornby

Mendip weekend

November

Provisionals’ weekend
17 new provisional members made their first forays underground in OFD this weekend.

Whitewalls weekend. Photos: Mark Burkey.

I love to hate you

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Cwm Dwr. Actually, that's not true. I love Cwm Dwr, I just hate the entrance series. Since I've spent most of the last few years at a size that didn't really suit that particular piece if cave, I've pretty much avoided it. In nearly a decade as an SWCC member and countless trips into OFD 1 and 2, I've probably been in Cwm Dwr less than 10 times. So, a planned 1 to Cwm Dwr through trip with additional time for some exploring around OFD 1 1/2 actually made me a bit nervous. Believe it or not, I'd never done the through trip before - after all, it meant going out through Cwm Dwr. On the other hand, even carrying a bit of excess Christmas weight, I'm significantly smaller than I was a year or two ago so it should be OK.
So, on a bitingly cold Saturday morning, off we go down the hill.
Our first detour comes quite early on. Tim's been studying the new survey and it seems to suggest that there's a way through that wasn't clear on the old one. After a few misses, Tim manages to lasso the stal boss at the top of the calcite climb just before The Step and up we all go. After a refreshing wade through the waist deep pool, and a bit of crawling to warm up again, sure enough, it goes through and we arrive at the Eagles Nest, way up in the roof above the stream. A handy thread presents itself and, with a handline in place,  its an easy climb down to the first ledge where there's a rock bridge over the steam and another climb down to the next ledge. With everyone down the first climb there's a pause. I wait with the rope while Colin and Chloe wait the other side of the bridge. Tim goes down the second climb to check out exactly where we are. There's a shout and I'm given the go ahead to pull the rope down. We all gather on the next ledge where Tim meets us with a grin. Turns out, the rope is only just long enough to get us back to the stream. More of a problem is that the ledge we're on is directly above the 2nd Pot. Climbing down here would mean either a very careful descent onto the middle of the scaffolding or a big splash and an early bath. However, a short slope leads around the corner onto the escape route. We drop down the chain and carry on up the streamway, noticing that it appears to be a bit on the high side. Not scarily high, just high enough to draw attention.
The next bit of excitement comes as we make our way through the choke. Just as we pass the entrance to the passage leading off to the sump, there's a massive booming sound. I recognise it straight away as the sounds of a sump either opening or closing. Trouble is, we don't know which. Since it hasn't rained for a while, I'm fairly sure the water level is dropping but this still adds a bit of urgency to the rest of the passage through the choke. Once we're out, I suggest we head down towards the sump to check out what's going on. The tide mark in the wet sand confirms that the water is indeed going down. We relax and head off up the Connection and on to the climb that leads into OFD 1 1/2.
Tim's been here before so he leads the way up the climb, dropping the rope down for use as a handline. Once we're all up the climb, we start exploring. Turns out, none of us have memorised the survey as well as we thought. There's quite a bit of back tracking and circling for a while. On the way out of one particular dead end we meet a mixed party of SWCC and Morgannwg cavers apparently doing the same thing. We chat, then set off in opposite directions, only to meet again a few minutes later as the passages loop around to rejoin each other. We tag along for a while down the only remaining unexplored passage choosing opposite directions at the next junction. After a fairly snug crawl, we come to a bit Tim recognises. A spectacular dry crystal pool. The only way on is to traverse, carefully over the top of it. There's more concentration going into this traverse, about 3 feet off the floor than any I've done high above certain death. Nobody wants to be the one who puts a muddy footprint in the crystals. We pop out at the top of a large rift. A well worn path leads off to the left but appears to simply stop in a small chamber. A hunt around and a passage in the roof is revealed. But there's a problem. It's a vertical tube and very tight. There's no way I can climb it. One at a time, we all come to the same conclusion - this is definitely a one way passage. The only way out is back the way we came.
We head back over the traverse and into the crawl. Guess where we meet the other party! It's a bit like one of those picture puzzles where you slide one piece at a time, sliding the next one into the gap in the right order to complete the picture. After a few minutes, we've worked our way past each other and we head out and back down the climb.
Packing the rope away we carry on with the through trip. A quick check of the watch suggests that we may have spent a bit longer exploring than we should have done so we pick up the pace, heading through the letterbox and on up to the divers pitch. The crawl up to the head of the divers pitch reveals a new problem. The sound of the waterfall up ahead makes me suddenly very aware that I'm lying on a very full bladder! It's no better when I get out the crawl. I can't take advantage of the running water - it runs over the pitch that Tim is standing at the bottom of and Chloe has started descending.
However, there is quite a lot of water running over, making hanging on to the handline a bit tricky. We manage to communicate with Tim over the noise of the waterfall and he sends our 20 metres of rope back up, attached to the end of the handline. A few minutes later, I'm safely attached and the pitch is rigged to belay Chloe through the waterfall. Colin follows and I de-rig, drop the lifeline down to be packed away and make my way down the pitch to take advantage of water that's running away from everyone else.
Another check on the watch confirms that we spent a bit too long exploring. We're going to miss our call out, the question is, by how much. We're off into Cwm Dwr and picking up the pace until we get to the choke and the next bit of excitement. None of us are entirely sure of the way through but we follow our noses, or to be more precise we follow Tim's nose, until we reach the "bastard puddle".
It's a low wet grovel in the middle of the choke that's simultaneously an unpleasant place to be and a most welcome landmark, confirming that we're on the right path. I start to slide down between the boulders into the puddle and come to a sudden stop. My belt is hooked on a protrusion. I'm upside down, on my back and going nowhere. I can't get my hands around to take the weight and unhook myself. I call Tim to see if he can help with a push but then I realise that I can reach my belt. I slowly release the buckle. Knowing what's coming, I brace myself and, as the belt comes undone, so does it's temporary hold on my descent. I land, head first and rather ungracefully, in the " bastard puddle".
Gathering my breath and what's left of my dignity, we head on up the Cwm Dwr Jama until we reach the hole in the floor that marks the start of my nemesis. I don't know what it is about these next few metres of cave but it really messes with my head. I know I'm almost 3 stone lighter than I was when I failed to fit and had to abort. I know I've been through plenty of times since then but it doesn't matter. As I get closer, I feel my breathing getting faster and I have to force myself to slow down. I know what comes next if I don't. I'll start moving faster, trying to brute force my way through instead of thinking. I hear the gravel moving. Tim's at the tight bit. Then Chloe's through and it's my turn. With an apology to Colin, I take a final moment to get ready then I'm in. There's a second where I'm not quite lined up and I stick but I'm ready for that this time. Don't force it, just inch through. We're still running late though so there's no time to hang about. I catch up with Chloe in time to spot her up the awkward climb with the angled metal bar and we're on to the final challenge. Just like the crawl, this gets easier every time. I learnt on an earlier trip that I don't fit in the concrete pipes if I try to put my toes in the holes knocked in the sides. My femur is longer than the diameter of the pipe. The way up is to go backwards, put my heels in the holes and my femur is at 45 degrees not 90 and it all fits. One hand over the top of the last pipe and I'm out. Tim has run ahead to get the ticket off so technically we're only 15 minutes overdue.
It's been a great trip. Most people stomp along the through trip so we're all glad we took the time to explore along the way. I still hate the Cwm Dwr crawl but I know how to beat it. It's the key to some really great caving so I guess I'll just have love to hate it.

New Year at SWCC

Authors: Duncan Hornby and Claire Vivian

With the Christmas leftovers going stale in the fridge and daytime TV being a no-go option, it was time for some drastic action. Of course, that was going to involve caving.

28th December - OFD2
Team: Steve Hepple, Tabitha Oosterhouse, Elena, Paul Tarrant, Claire Vivian, Jo White

This was Elena’s first visit to SWCC so with the weather being appallingly bad outside, even for Penwyllt, we headed for an explore around Top. Slow progress to the entrance was made as lots of tea drinking and watching the rain took place before we left.

Once underground, we made fast progress to Timo’s Table, via lower Arete Chamber, with Elena showing that she was perfectly comfortable underground. We explored around this area a little to discover where my routefinding had gone awry last time I visited here, then headed back towards the Trident and Judge via a different route to make things more interesting. We marvelled at these formations and then decided to extend the trip by visiting Cross Rift.

Although totally new to both Tabitha and Elena, President’s Leap proved to be no obstacle for them as they powered across, eager to take in the sights of Selenite Tunnel. It was then time for us to turn around and begin to head out. We took a slight detour to look at the climb up to Peter’s Pretty Passage and follow the passage running parallel to Salubrious. By this point we had been underground for around 5 hours and the group were tiring, so we headed back for hot showers and food.

Jo near Timo’s Table; Elena enjoying her first visit to SWCC

Tabitha and Paul

Steve at Swamp Creek; Elena on President's Leap; Steve in Salubrious.

Tabitha in Selenite Tunnel; Tabitha and Elena helping Shatter Pillar out.

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29th December - Ogof Draenen
Team: Derek Cousins, Stuart Cresswell (WCMS), Paul Fairman (WCMS), Steve Hepple, Duncan Hornby, Pavel Krawczyk (WCMS), Jo White & Claire Vivian

Duncan was not happy. An 8am start in order to get underground in Draenen before 10am!! We set off a little late after the obligatory faffing, but made good time on the way there. A cold wind and smattering of rain ensured minimal faffing whilst getting changed, then we were off.

Paul was keen to explore the area beyond Megadrive as he had not been there before, with the aim of finding the way on towards the Snowball. This was Jo and Steve's first visit to the cave, so excitement was in the air. Fast progress was made through the wet entrance series to the signing in book and then we headed on to Lamb and Fox Chamber and Indiana Highway. Indiana Highway is a narrow, but fairly long traverse. The very end section is roped and is over a 22m deep hole, the 'Lost Crusade'. Reaching Megadrive, we followed this for ages and then turned right down Going Square, instead of Perseverance I. It was new passage for all of us, but didn't get us to the Snowball. After heading back to the junction we went for a quick look at the Nunnery and then went and found Perseverance. But with time no longer on our side, we had to turn around and head out. New passage for all of us, so a good trip. Total trip time 6hrs.

Disappearing in to Draenen.

Steve on the roped climb in the entrance series

Looking down on Indiana Highway

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                  30th December - Transporting ladder to beginning of Midnight traverse
Team: Tony Baker, Derek Cousins, Andy Dobson, Martin Hoff, Duncan Hornby & John Roe

I have always wondered about how fixed ladders in caves get where they are and now I know, teamwork! Joining Martin Hoff and co. I helped carry a 3m fixed metal ladder to the beginning of the Midnight traverse. This ladder is to replace the old and failing Brigadier Glennies ladder. Once there, the others went along the traverse to consider best approach for the next stage of its installation.
Throughout this very efficient trip it was remarked on more than one occasion how useful it was to have a fixed ladder with you, making short climbs a breeze. If they were truly easy to carry around everyone would have one!

On the way in and out Martin was pointing out various fixed aids and to top it all off I was shown another route out of Top Entrance avoiding the monotonous brickyard.

The day was topped off by a group curry at Tiffin in Ystradgynlais.

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31st December - Getting lost in OFD is fun!
Team: Paul Fairman (WCMS), Steve Hepple, Duncan Hornby & Jo White

With rain that never seemed to stop it was decided to go into Top Entrance for a “proper” explore. “Proper” being Paul leading us into the heart of the Labyrinth area, getting truly (and intentionally) lost! It was strange, as I would normally be worried, but with such a strong team of cavers we just kept going, exploring lots of side passages. Eventually we ended up at what was later found out to be a horrendous climb down from Northern Canyon. We turned around and wandered in some other direction which eventually popped out in Salubrious Stream Way.

Bumping into Iain and Tim who were on their way to do some bolting work, Iain quickly showed us one end of Peter’s Pretty Passage. With a mental note taken of its position we headed off to Shatter Pillar as I wanted to show the others a way down into Lugubrious stream shown to me by Martin the previous day. We continued on and ended up in some “chamber of death” with an unbelievable amount of hanging death. Not a place I wish to visit again!

We eventually decided to head out and I used my new route out from the Wedding cake formation to the entrance.

Last ones standing at New Year in the LCR. Photo: Miri Pihlaja

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1st January - Hung over in Peter’s pretty passage
Team: Paul Fairman (WCMS), Steve Hepple, Duncan Hornby & Jo White

With lack of sleep from New Year's Eve antics and a raging hangover I was dismayed by Paul actually turning up and wanting to go caving, something I had agreed to in an alcoholic haze…

We eventually settled on the idea of visiting Peter's Pretty Passage. Fortunately for us it turns out that Steve is quite a good climber so when we got to the entrance of the passage he was able to climb up and throw down a ladder for us less capable. With everyone up we carried on only to be confronted by a rather bold step. Whilst I was able to do it, Jo was having none of it! I for one was grateful as about 2m on is an awkward climb up that throws you out over nothing. Whilst I’m sure all of us with some help would be able to climb up, coming back the other way would have been s**t scary! Even Steve was not happy... So we abandon him! De-rigged the climb down and went around to the other end of the passage. Steve had been waiting patiently and quickly set up the ladder so we could climb up and join him.

Paul admiring the crystal pool

This passage is pretty amazing, we many delicate helictites and crystal pools. GREAT CARE was needed to move around within the passage. My camera had ran out of power so the following pictures are from Paul Fairman’s camera.

Jo admiring even more formations

Delicate helictites

                      Duncan close and personal with a crystal pool

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2nd January - Too many mince pies makes for a short trip…
Team: Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Duncan Hornby, Phil Knight (+ Matt) & Claire Vivian

With New Year's excesses behind us, today's objective was to head to the Upper Oxbow series and descend the 20m pitch to Splash Inlet. Andy showed us how the Sky Hook worked to get the rope up there so that a ladder could be rigged - Matt had no SRT experience, so would only be coming as far as the pitch head. There are some incredibly pretty formations here, it is well worth a visit.

Andy rigging the pitch

With the pitch rigged by Andy the SRT team descended leaving Phil and Matt to explore other passages at the top.

At the bottom of the pitch is a chamber leading to another shorter pitch. Rope was rigged to a natural anchor and Claire went through a small hole at ground level to have a look at the pitch. The rope didn't reach the ground, but it looked like it was only around 2 feet above the floor when it was unweighted, so it would be possible to get back on afterwards without the rope springing away after you got off it! Claire started to descend the pitch, saw an obvious rub point and asked for an empty tackle sack to protect the rope. Reached the floor, got off, could still reach the rope, no problem! Antonia was through next.
Andy attempted to slip through this hole but got firmly wedged! I like to think it was down to too many mince pies and sherry at Christmas, but who's to say?

At chest level is a very obvious eye hole that could have been rigged through but we did not have enough rope. So at this point Andy had to accept he was going no further.

Andy at the eye-hole. Having another 10m of rope would have meant we could have rigged through this.

Moving like an inch worm Duncan was able to squeeze through the hole and join the ladies at the bottom of the pitch. We then gave ourselves 45 minutes to explore.

We travelled upstream to Mutiny Junction and explored various ways on and came across a fantastic crystal pool.

A close-up of the delicate crystals in the crystal pool.

Looking up the 20m pitch

We were also visited by some of our favourite Finnish members, Miri and Velma. Who spent a couple of days introducing 3 new members of the Finnish Caving Club to OFD. They visited all of OFD's entrances during this time and gave their new recruits a great introduction to OFD and caving in general. Everyone looked happy and seemed to be enjoying themselves, so hopefully we'll see them all back again soon. After their visit to SWCC they then went on to the Wessex to try out some Mendip caves. Please check out their Caving in Finland website.

Velma and the new Finnish cavers. Photo: Miri Pihlaja

Traversing Pluto's Bath. Photo: Miri Pihlaja

Miri near the Wedding Cake. Photo: Velma Aho

The end of December also saw the launch of Toby's new company and website, LandJourneys www.landjourneys.co.uk which will be offering guided walks along the Appalachian Trail from the Spring onwards. Just in time for people to work out how they are going to shed those extra Christmas pounds and improve their fitness this year.

Toby's new website, LandJourneys. There's also a Facebook page. Go and take a look!

All in all, it was a good New Year for SWCC and its members. Happy caving in 2016 everyone!

Llygad Llwchwr 2, 13.12.15

Llygad Llwchwr 2
A Photography trip with Adrian Brown and Jem Rowland

New Year, New Skills

On Friday 1st January, me and my dad got up, had some breakfast, faffed a bit, waited for Simon to to get up, faffed a bit more, spoke to a few people suffering from hangovers from New Year, waited for Simon some more but in the end gave up and decided to go without him, because we couldn’t find where he was sleeping to wake him up.

Before we started I was very nervous because I had never done a trip like this with just two of us.

This was going to be our third time together to the columns. Although it was our third time together, it was our first time with just us.

When we went down to the columns, we took some rope which I carried and when we got to the slope down to cairn chamber, we decided to leave the bag of rope at the top. Normally we use the rope on the large hole and on the slope to cairn chamber but for the first time we decided not to use a rope on any of them. Based on last time, our trip was supposed to take four/five hours but it took us only two hours.

At the hole I was more nervous than before, I always had a rope and someone to hold onto to step across the hole because I can’t reach any of the handholds, because I only have little legs!  But we didn’t have enough people so I didn’t have the rope. (Not strictly true - we didn't use the rope because he wanted to try without , and he managed to reach the handholds fine with just a spotter) After I got over the hole, I felt really proud and the same thing happened at cairn chamber.

From the entrance I had to find my way to the columns without any help from dad, because he made me! Which at first I was very nervous about but when we got to the columns and back I felt pleased with myself. I didn’t even get lost!

James - Age 11.