Plans or survey on grand Turk passage

A few of us ucet lot went to grand Turk to climb an internal shaft to look what was above. We got up the shaft and found the shaft was rigged from above but the rope was left up. We continued on come across another man way shaft (ladders at the bottom stacked up ) but couldn?t see any rope from here. So either other explorers have free climbed as we did and rigged a pull through it there is another way in from above and they came down the man way. (Why would they leave the ropes in the small shaft and leave them at the top ?  Make me think they defo came from above.
We had a poke at the collapse and dug some more out. And it was dropping from above the more we removed so hopefully sounds possible.
Does this connect to the cabin shaft day level ?

Any help greatly appreciated tia.
 

NewStuff

New member
There is a line sketch kicking around somewhere showing a lot of the Minera passages and interconnects. I may have it stashed somewhere, I'll look when I get the chance. No idea if it's detailed enough to show what you want.
 

Dave Tyson

Member
There is a survey online at Cambrian Caving Council:

http://www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk/registry/CoNW/pics/7m%20Llyn%20Du.jpg

Dave
 

speedycaver

New member
I climbed that vertical shaft in the secret passage 9 years ago.  :D

I free climbed the short pitch up to the dam from Grand Turk and threw a rope down for the other two in my group.  If I remember, there was an old chisel wedged in a crack which helped me climb it.  There were no other ropes there and no sign that anyone had been there for a while.

The vertical shaft was a couple of hundred feet along the passage and was indeed dug from top down and around 100ft deep.  At the top, you find yourself at the end of a level running parallel with the level below.  It runs around 15ft to a very old and solid collapse (possibly a collapsed or back-filled shaft or stope).  Pulling stuff out just caused more to fall in.  I'm not saying it couldn't be dug but it would take a lot of work, especially not knowing what you are digging in to.

There are two videos of it on Youtube, one was dragging the gear through the crawl and the other was while I was actually climbing.  Both videos are embarrassingly poor quality and the climb isn't very interesting and basically just shown me struggling to sort out my method of climbing.  The actual climb took me 8 hours without a break as once I had started I was pretty committed.  I managed to drill one hole 1/2" deep as it was quartz and the rubbish drill I had died  o_O.  This was about 20ft up and completely useless.  I ended up climbing the shaft without bolting.  I noticed one drill hole about 40ft up but no bolt or hanger.  It was obviously old and I wonder if it was drilled back in the days when the original timber ladder was a bit more intact and someone got to the top of the ladder and tried to put a bolt in..?

There was a pointed rock at the top which I wrapped the rope around as a pull through to abseil back down.  As it didn't look like it would be worth returning I didn't leave a rope in place.  I also didn't want to risk anyone climbing a rope that was simply thrown over a pointy rock  ::)

If you are desperate, you will find the videos here...

https://youtu.be/x8178ZVj8P8

and

https://youtu.be/oXshKXlM4FE
 

speedycaver

New member
Oh, I also need to apologise as the metal ladder and bits at the bottom of that shaft are what we had to leave behind as we couldn't manage to bring them back out on that trip as one of the trio wasn't well and left half way through the day, leaving just the two of us to bring everything out.
The plan was to return for the rest of the stuff but before I had the chance I had a pretty big accident and haven't been back to Minera since  :cautious:

I've always felt guilty about leaving 'rubbish' behind.

It's probably rusted away by now though..  :confused:
 

speedycaver

New member
Ha, a hell of a lot of work for nuffin..!    ::)
Was a  fun day though, albeit extremely exhausting.  :blink:
 

Dave Tyson

Member
speedycaver said:
Oh, I also need to apologise as the metal ladder and bits at the bottom of that shaft are what we had to leave behind as we couldn't manage to bring them back out on that trip as one of the trio wasn't well and left half way through the day, leaving just the two of us to bring everything out.
The plan was to return for the rest of the stuff but before I had the chance I had a pretty big accident and haven't been back to Minera since  :cautious:

I've always felt guilty about leaving 'rubbish' behind.

It's probably rusted away by now though..  :confused:
Hi Speedycaver,

The ladder was hanging from some kind of anchor when I climbed the shaft to the dam some years ago. I climbed part way up it and then jumared up a rope which was hanging down partway, having put some protection on it case it failed. At the top, the rope was attached to a good re-belay and went through the 'dam' to a bar IIRC. I looked at the climb up the mineshaft, but didn't have any bolting gear. The rope was replaced by persons unknown, probably NWCC, with a proper y hang, some years later. I did revisit to look if it was possible to dig the passage at the end where it meets a collapsed shaft - but that must be 8 years ago at least. Haven't been back since, but a recent UCET trip had to retrieve the rope which was coiled up near the dam. That means there must be a way up and out now. Speaking to another club member he implied that was the way he came in and went out on a NWCC led trip so maybe the collapse you encountered has been cleared and there is now a route to near the top of the diesel stopes reached from the back of Boundary shaft.

Dave
 

speedycaver

New member
Hmm, that sounds interesting.
Obviously it used to reach surface and so it is possible someone has dug through one of the collapses, either at the end of the passage or at the top of the 100ft shaft.
I didn't leave a rope behind at the dam.  I derigged the one I put in that day, just free climbed back down on the way out.  Obviously there have been more visitors since then.  Would love to know if you can access that pat from the surface now.  Would be a fun round trip.
 

tony s

New member
The Grand Turk Passage of Llyn Du 1 was rediscovered in the 1980s by NWCC via a boulder choke reached from Cabin Shaft (the miners first found the caves, probably much to their dismay given the efforts they made to stop flood waters getting into the mines). 

The winze up to the Grand Turk level was quickly climbed to reach the miners dam, and explored to a boulder blockage.  As Dave Tyson notes, the NWCC survey is on the CCC website.  The blockage has been dug at various times since, together with the far side of the choke which is reached via a traverse over Diesel Stopes, and then a lovely clean-washed climb up the stopes of the White Vein.  The gap is only a few metres and would form an attractive round trip if the blockage can be removed.  The ladderway above the Grand Turk was also climbed in the 1980s to a sub-level and blockage.

Diesel Stopes, which forms the deepest accessible area from the Cabin Shaft workings, was so named because of the serious diesel contamination from the quarry fuelling point which had washed down LLyn Du via the Ragman and Grand Turk passages in floods to the terminal sump; this then drained into the collapsed base of the Grand Turk shaft which was the scene of another NWCC dig in an earlier attempt to find Llyn Du cavern. 

It was pleasing to note that on a tourist trip last night by 7 NWCC members (no NWCRO was not asked to attend the OFD rescue!) there was no trace of any residual diesel in the system which has cleaned up since the quarry closure.
 
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