Is there any secret way of protecting/avoiding the little Cwm Dwr traverse (on the standard route from the Big Shacks towards the Confluence via Piccadilly)? A small slip on the polished bit in the early section, where it is still quite deep, could easily be terminal which puts me off taking novices on what is otherwise a 'safe' and easy trip (and I've done the entire crawl in under 6 minutes, a time which could easily be beaten by the fit, so I don't accept moaning about how long the crawl is :tease: )

Not sure about protecting it but Messrs Bratchley and Mses Cooper took me on a trip in the summer and missed out a lot of what I would call the normal trip. It was sometime after we whizzed through the boulder choke that he said this way and found a hole to drop into (I think before these traverses).


We then proceeded to miss out all of the stuff I usually see including the beached whale step (sediment banks). and ended up in the confluence.  :blink:
We were in and out of Cwm Dwr in a flash. 8) :blink:

There are so many possible routes!  When I travelled regularly in the late 60s from Cwm Dwr to the Confluence the route was always a surprise.  Err....I don't remember any traverse!

alastairgott said:

Not sure about protecting it but Messrs Bratchley and Mses Cooper took me on a trip in the summer and missed out a lot of what I would call the normal trip. It was sometime after we whizzed through the boulder choke that he said this way and found a hole to drop into (I think before these traverses).


We then proceeded to miss out all of the stuff I usually see including the beached whale step (sediment banks). and ended up in the confluence.  :blink:
We were in and out of Cwm Dwr in a flash. 8) :blink:

Click to expand...

I have been told it is possible to drop down into the streamway below, and it is either poorly shown or wrong/missing on the survey, but I don't know where the route goes...

If you?ve got a portion of the survey that you could take a photo of then I could try and work out where it is, or better still you could ask messrs braatch.

I?m @hotmail.com if you need my email address.

I've never seen the traverse protected.


The survey is actually very good however the cave is very complex and 3-D in this Area.  There are several layers of passages. The survey represents this in colours.  The normal route is the darker yellow of the survey. The paler/greeny yellow is the lower level. 

The lower level is the Cwm Dwr Streamway which is short but quite pleasant. It ends at a boulder choke underneath the Smithy (and can be rejoined by descending after the Smithy) .    There are several ways down: on exiting the Cwm dwr Choke, climbing over the boulders on your RHS leads to a hole which can be followed down (A) . Alternately, when facing the route to upper smithy, instead of going left on the normal route go right and work down.  To exit the lower level you can climb out at B - this is a side passage which is the lower level of the traverse you are trying to avoid.

It is also possible to go straight ahead at big shacks and work down to the smithy that way.