Trips & Reports

\"Free rope\"

Chad has often said to me that he doesn’t like being a passenger on caving trips any more. And after my first rigging trip, down marble steps, I think I can see why. Having de-rigged several caves, I expected rigging to be a similar challenge: fairly methodical work, some interesting balancing on traverses, but otherwise generally straightforward. Instead (and I think I mentioned this to Chad) I found it more of an art than a science. It combined all the... read more

5 for scum because i trod in mouldy sheep then touched my wellies :s 3 for hardcore because of an unnexpected decent halfway up the pitch ;)

find now, cave later

A huge cave :) I propose that future Berger training should be carried out here, with each person carrying three full tacklesacks of rope out of the entrance pitch ;) After \"Faff now Cave later\" and the Wales Draenen teams \"Pack now Cave later\" we decided to \"Find now Cave later\" by firstly finding the right cave then deciding it wasn\'t then walking around for ages before coming back to the original cave and deciding to go down it :S We did... read more

Pilllar holes is the most pointless \"Cave\" ever. Some holes in the ground that someone as put spits/long lifes/P-hangers down which don\'t go anywhere or have any character to them whatsoever. As it was not clear which route was which, the best bit was when I found a route down that wasn\'t hanged so I used naturals and slings, least I got some expo style rigging in ;) Tom gave up after disliking the spit :-P Worse than Tunnel cave this one.

After nearly abandoning caving all together it turned out to be a good trip :) We went to Peterson Pot, and did the first 2 pitches. Easy as pie... then the Rolly-polly passage started! Imogen went first, finding it a bit awkward but perhaps being short enough to slither through pushing her bag in-front of her. Rich went next, but found parts quite tricky that Nemo didn\'t even notice!! It was decided to turn back, because crawling backwards with a Wankle... read more

I sat up groggily as my alarm went off far too early. Then I opened my eyes properly – this was the day of the trip that had first been suggested last year on a cold evening in the NPC hut when we were talking to Clive Westlake after our trip to the Far Country. The trip that I was more desperate to do than any other in Wales. After giving Andy a less-than-gentle nudge I rushed downstairs to get some... read more

went to see my (only looked at the entrance) digs again!

overexaggerating on fun and faff but what the hell! i led and i have no problems saying there was a little faff finding the cave! and fun levels fell as faff levels increased but it was much better when we were down!

Water levels made the main streamway rather \"sporting\" (aka pretty fecking scary in places). It would have been foolish to be in there had there been much more water. Lots of fun though with the water slides and swimming across plunge pools. We kept moving quickly so I never actually got cold despite the complete soaking. Marble Showers was very pretty (but the low roof was slightly unnerving!). I was rather relieved when I recognised we had reached the... read more

Words of wisdom from Gover the night before (paraphrased): \"You won\'t make it through the boulder choke first time. I can guarantee it. I\'ve spent an hour there before trying to find the way\" Yes. We got a little bit lost round the boulder choke. Thought we\'d made it through first time (ha ha Rich - in a respectable 10 minutes too) as where we popped out had lots of footprints - clearly people had been here before so we must... read more