D
darkplaces
Guest
DP Big Bash Week 2007
WOW! Amazing and I didn’t die! The Darkplaces lot managed to organise a week of trips for all levels, some easy some mega hard core. Throughout the week we made fun of cavers. :ras:
Saturday 4th - A wet one…
We had a walk up a very wet audit with lots of water coming out, after about 50ft it starts getting deeper with my bits getting wet and cold. After a while we have to crawl but its not as deep, meeting a shaft with water pouring down I remember, I think Nimrod saying the water was neck deep! Oh well that me out then, its well over my head If its neck deep for him!
The second underground trip of the day is secret but it’s a nice slate mine
Sunday 5th - Cwmorthin SRT Day
9 hours underground with Miles, Vanoord, Wormster, Darkstar, SimonRL, Nimrod and Wenders.
I was told of a 150ft decent, I was worried! However it was easy as it was down a steep slope; still if I had fallen I would have been damaged. Much work had gone into pre-rigging this trip, thanks goes to the rigger twins Miles and Simon. I enjoyed the SRT and slides unknowingly I was on a mega hard bastard trip. Wow I am ‘ard now I slid down on slate slides, making a wussy sound.. I saw the Bridge of Death, of Death and it is rather nasty looking! We peered down to the hideous slopping bottom and were told stories of expert riggers levitating across to rig the traverse lines.
After lunch and more looking about we head for chamber 14. Here to make the trip extra mega hard bastard the rope was cut to find the wuss… Once I had stopped crying it was correctly re-rigged and I dropped down the 80ft sharp wall of deadly slate, carefully! We all exit alive and happy I was a well ‘ard SRT’er with my final test to come later in the week.
Monday 6th – A mine of Gold we snuck into.
We all arrived as if by magic at a Welsh gold mine, somewhere in Wales. I had been before so was happy to climb the ladder and poke around, a larger internal steep manway was rigged by Jagman and many people went up, however I had nothing to prove with my SRT prowess and I was getting cold waiting so decided to return to the Funbus in the sunshine and eat. Nice day
Tuesday 7th - Drwys y Coed
I dropped down an 80ft shaft. Clunk descended it without doing up his central million, ooops, so I asked everyone to look at my nuts to check. The decent was slightly un-nerving for me as just putting weight on over the bar I hear ripping sounds, oh my god my harness is ripping apart I thought, so I dropped down gingerly and asked others at the bottom, to check my harness, all ok, but my boiler suit had a rip in it… The mine was small with a few crawls, not much to report. The prussic out was ok, the bloody pantin kept coming off the rope though.
Tuesday 7th – A wet lead mine.
Got kitted up in SRT and boiler suit. It’s a fun mine getting your bottom bits totally soaked right at the start. I had been once before but stopped at the 1st collapse before. I enjoyed the ladders but got to a low wet crawl, I wish I had on my warmbac on and should have done it. DAMM next time.. Had ice-cream on the way, nice.
Wednesday 8th – Moles Slate Mine & Party.
We revisited Moles last slate mine, impressive isn’t the word I am glad he got to see such an amazingly huge place with daylight streaming down from a couple of hundred foot above and looking down on a 150+ft below.
In the evening we relaxed and had a bit of a party with involved beer, food, cake candela, fireworks and PETROL Even a short speech. Thanks everyone
We even had a log-saw competition with simply-saw loosing out to 4 people with hammers and axes.
Thursday 9th - Parys Mountain
An amazingly coloured over ground and underground trip. Snotities and amazing colours and black pools, some fun ladders. At one point myself and Walrus thought a torrent of water was coming down a stepway and we were going to be drowned, only to find it was the wet trip lot coming down leaking water and kicking more down. Amazing formations.
Friday 10th - Croesor-Rhosydd Through Trip
Attending: Darkplaces (me), Nimrod, Wenders, Wormster, Merddinemrys, Barney, Vanoord and SimonRL.
The CRTT… I had read the stories and heard other peoples accounts of it, I thought technically its not hard but I was worried about the water (cant swim) and worried at never successfully done a zip wire before (that I remember).
Knowing I walk up hill slower then a slow slug in a snow shoe I had a head start and everyone still managed to catch me up just short of Rhosydd Ruins. I was handed a life jacket and promptly herded further up the hill. We kitted up outside Rhosydd and climbed in, up the incline up to the 1st pitch, I was slightly sickly nervous and toyed with the idea of backing out, only the fact that I needed help getting up a climb to get in stopped me from being lead out like a twat. I disabled the imagination and dropped down the HUGE looking pitch, words like 80ft were banded around I am sure they are lies and its like 100s of ft high. Two scary pitches later (they seamed huge because of the large chambers) we reached the 1st zip line, I had no choice. I watched a couple of others zip over and it didn’t seam too bad they seamed to gently land the other side and my arse would remain dry. However, I forgot the bit about pulling on the rope to break and while zooming across heard Nimrod shout BREAK BREAK BREAK, crap I thought were is that RO… BANG! Nimrod kindly providing a buffer between me and slate. Er sorry and thankyou very much Mr Nimrod Sir… (doffs Cap) That zip wire was rather fun.
Next was the 1st boat ride. Were once a shiny ladder bridge had hung a rock had nailed it to the watery bottom. Confident in my life jacket I boated across, ignoring the inky blackness below me. Glad of that water practice I had the year before with Smurfit’s sister & Hobbit. Once all across we tried to pull the ladder bridge out but need divers to cut wire I think.
Next obstacle was a small chamber with lots of water below and the remains of the middle of the bridge hanging in the center. A zip line required to traverse this. Initally I used a too short a cows tail (safety line on the wire line) but ground to a halt after taking a bite out of an ally snap lock, extended my cows tail and added a steel and off I went. Perfect, lifted my feet to clear the middle bridge support and everything.
The second bridge (doesn’t really warrant the name) was a little trickier. Black inky water below, chamber not very wide. Just 2 Long very bouncy rails to the middle support. Holding the zip line anchored in the middle I shuffled to the middle very slowly were I then had to transfer to a pully on the zip wire, but I am short and the pulley is way up high so I pulled out a spare sling, larks footed it round my central million and attached it to the steel krab hanging from another sling hanging from the pulley. Short cows tail on a rather knackered looking peace of rope and off I went, another perfect zip wire
The final obstacle, something I had only seen from the other side was the large double water chamber, the water 15-20ft below. I abed down while Vanoord held the boat still under me and just lowered myself horizontally into the boat, it was rather nice, I ran the rope though the STOP and Vanoord pulled both boats attached to each other across the chamber while I almost feel asleep watching the remains of the knackered bridges pass above me. Very calming, oddly enough. Landing the other side vanoord yanked me out of the boat, up along then prussic up that short bit. Yes I can do that, I did and finally we could take the SRT gear off. I had done it! Atleast now I was in an area I had been before. Pleased I had not died we wandered off to the exit climbing over really slippery slate piles, splitting into two groups, one went up and one (me) went down to exit out the Rhosydd number 9 adit. Luckily Dark Prince had guessed what I would do. A couple of chambers up we noticed a green glow and headed for it. We found a peace of slate saying “well done root, not far to go” A welling of pride and glad that I actually HAD done it (how embarrassing if I had not!) as well as admiration for walking up that bloody hill just to leave me choccy bars (under the slate) I didn’t spot gerr! Cheers anyway DP! Very thoughtful.
Anyway it was not over yet, that is a long walk still out of the mine and down they bloody hill and down further to the car park were I had phone messages saying how hard core I was etc
ta.
Thanks to everyone on the trip for looking out for me and the reassurance and lies I suspect to get me though. I shall return, with a head start on the walk up for sure!
I brought a stenlight…
Saturday 11th - Party with Daddy Miles
We had a long walk up and down in a slate mine we cant name. Good to see it again though Cheers Miles and the Mine exploring dog with floppy ears
That evening/night many people left, the DP Big Bash had drawn to a sudden close. Being such a busy week with people underground for the whole day it had gone by so fast, good byes were said.
Sunday 12th – Its all over!
I drive home after again being fed and watered to face pages to emails, posts and new members and the hum drum life of 2 pages of work emails to read though.
I think its been a huge success and we didn’t kill anyone, despite what many other so called official organisations would say. I am sure many people have left with amazing memories, pictures and knowing they have pushed themselves further then they thought possible. Everyone at the Big bash Achieved something! Well done.
Posted on UK Caving to make cavers all jealous they are not as hard core as us mine explorers :tease:
WOW! Amazing and I didn’t die! The Darkplaces lot managed to organise a week of trips for all levels, some easy some mega hard core. Throughout the week we made fun of cavers. :ras:
Saturday 4th - A wet one…
We had a walk up a very wet audit with lots of water coming out, after about 50ft it starts getting deeper with my bits getting wet and cold. After a while we have to crawl but its not as deep, meeting a shaft with water pouring down I remember, I think Nimrod saying the water was neck deep! Oh well that me out then, its well over my head If its neck deep for him!
The second underground trip of the day is secret but it’s a nice slate mine
Sunday 5th - Cwmorthin SRT Day
9 hours underground with Miles, Vanoord, Wormster, Darkstar, SimonRL, Nimrod and Wenders.
I was told of a 150ft decent, I was worried! However it was easy as it was down a steep slope; still if I had fallen I would have been damaged. Much work had gone into pre-rigging this trip, thanks goes to the rigger twins Miles and Simon. I enjoyed the SRT and slides unknowingly I was on a mega hard bastard trip. Wow I am ‘ard now
I slid down on slate slides, making a wussy sound.. I saw the Bridge of Death, of Death and it is rather nasty looking! We peered down to the hideous slopping bottom and were told stories of expert riggers levitating across to rig the traverse lines.After lunch and more looking about we head for chamber 14. Here to make the trip extra mega hard bastard the rope was cut to find the wuss… Once I had stopped crying it was correctly re-rigged and I dropped down the 80ft sharp wall of deadly slate, carefully! We all exit alive and happy I was a well ‘ard SRT’er with my final test to come later in the week.
Monday 6th – A mine of Gold we snuck into.
We all arrived as if by magic at a Welsh gold mine, somewhere in Wales. I had been before so was happy to climb the ladder and poke around, a larger internal steep manway was rigged by Jagman and many people went up, however I had nothing to prove with my SRT prowess and I was getting cold waiting so decided to return to the Funbus in the sunshine and eat. Nice day
Tuesday 7th - Drwys y Coed
I dropped down an 80ft shaft. Clunk descended it without doing up his central million, ooops, so I asked everyone to look at my nuts to check. The decent was slightly un-nerving for me as just putting weight on over the bar I hear ripping sounds, oh my god my harness is ripping apart I thought, so I dropped down gingerly and asked others at the bottom, to check my harness, all ok, but my boiler suit had a rip in it… The mine was small with a few crawls, not much to report. The prussic out was ok, the bloody pantin kept coming off the rope though.
Tuesday 7th – A wet lead mine.
Got kitted up in SRT and boiler suit. It’s a fun mine getting your bottom bits totally soaked right at the start. I had been once before but stopped at the 1st collapse before. I enjoyed the ladders but got to a low wet crawl, I wish I had on my warmbac on and should have done it. DAMM next time.. Had ice-cream on the way, nice.
Wednesday 8th – Moles Slate Mine & Party.
We revisited Moles last slate mine, impressive isn’t the word I am glad he got to see such an amazingly huge place with daylight streaming down from a couple of hundred foot above and looking down on a 150+ft below.
In the evening we relaxed and had a bit of a party with involved beer, food, cake candela, fireworks and PETROL
Even a short speech. Thanks everyone We even had a log-saw competition with simply-saw loosing out to 4 people with hammers and axes.
Thursday 9th - Parys Mountain
An amazingly coloured over ground and underground trip. Snotities and amazing colours and black pools, some fun ladders. At one point myself and Walrus thought a torrent of water was coming down a stepway and we were going to be drowned, only to find it was the wet trip lot coming down leaking water and kicking more down. Amazing formations.
Friday 10th - Croesor-Rhosydd Through Trip
Attending: Darkplaces (me), Nimrod, Wenders, Wormster, Merddinemrys, Barney, Vanoord and SimonRL.
The CRTT… I had read the stories and heard other peoples accounts of it, I thought technically its not hard but I was worried about the water (cant swim) and worried at never successfully done a zip wire before (that I remember).
Knowing I walk up hill slower then a slow slug in a snow shoe I had a head start and everyone still managed to catch me up just short of Rhosydd Ruins. I was handed a life jacket and promptly herded further up the hill. We kitted up outside Rhosydd and climbed in, up the incline up to the 1st pitch, I was slightly sickly nervous and toyed with the idea of backing out, only the fact that I needed help getting up a climb to get in stopped me from being lead out like a twat. I disabled the imagination and dropped down the HUGE looking pitch, words like 80ft were banded around I am sure they are lies and its like 100s of ft high. Two scary pitches later (they seamed huge because of the large chambers) we reached the 1st zip line, I had no choice. I watched a couple of others zip over and it didn’t seam too bad they seamed to gently land the other side and my arse would remain dry. However, I forgot the bit about pulling on the rope to break and while zooming across heard Nimrod shout BREAK BREAK BREAK, crap I thought were is that RO… BANG! Nimrod kindly providing a buffer between me and slate. Er sorry and thankyou very much Mr Nimrod Sir… (doffs Cap) That zip wire was rather fun.
Next was the 1st boat ride. Were once a shiny ladder bridge had hung a rock had nailed it to the watery bottom. Confident in my life jacket I boated across, ignoring the inky blackness below me. Glad of that water practice I had the year before with Smurfit’s sister & Hobbit. Once all across we tried to pull the ladder bridge out but need divers to cut wire I think.
Next obstacle was a small chamber with lots of water below and the remains of the middle of the bridge hanging in the center. A zip line required to traverse this. Initally I used a too short a cows tail (safety line on the wire line) but ground to a halt after taking a bite out of an ally snap lock, extended my cows tail and added a steel and off I went. Perfect, lifted my feet to clear the middle bridge support and everything.
The second bridge (doesn’t really warrant the name) was a little trickier. Black inky water below, chamber not very wide. Just 2 Long very bouncy rails to the middle support. Holding the zip line anchored in the middle I shuffled to the middle very slowly were I then had to transfer to a pully on the zip wire, but I am short and the pulley is way up high so I pulled out a spare sling, larks footed it round my central million and attached it to the steel krab hanging from another sling hanging from the pulley. Short cows tail on a rather knackered looking peace of rope and off I went, another perfect zip wire
The final obstacle, something I had only seen from the other side was the large double water chamber, the water 15-20ft below. I abed down while Vanoord held the boat still under me and just lowered myself horizontally into the boat, it was rather nice, I ran the rope though the STOP and Vanoord pulled both boats attached to each other across the chamber while I almost feel asleep watching the remains of the knackered bridges pass above me. Very calming, oddly enough. Landing the other side vanoord yanked me out of the boat, up along then prussic up that short bit. Yes I can do that, I did and finally we could take the SRT gear off. I had done it! Atleast now I was in an area I had been before. Pleased I had not died we wandered off to the exit climbing over really slippery slate piles, splitting into two groups, one went up and one (me) went down to exit out the Rhosydd number 9 adit. Luckily Dark Prince had guessed what I would do. A couple of chambers up we noticed a green glow and headed for it. We found a peace of slate saying “well done root, not far to go” A welling of pride and glad that I actually HAD done it (how embarrassing if I had not!) as well as admiration for walking up that bloody hill just to leave me choccy bars (under the slate) I didn’t spot gerr! Cheers anyway DP! Very thoughtful.
Anyway it was not over yet, that is a long walk still out of the mine and down they bloody hill and down further to the car park were I had phone messages saying how hard core I was etc
ta. Thanks to everyone on the trip for looking out for me and the reassurance and lies I suspect to get me though. I shall return, with a head start on the walk up for sure!
I brought a stenlight…
Saturday 11th - Party with Daddy Miles
We had a long walk up and down in a slate mine we cant name. Good to see it again though Cheers Miles and the Mine exploring dog with floppy ears
That evening/night many people left, the DP Big Bash had drawn to a sudden close. Being such a busy week with people underground for the whole day it had gone by so fast, good byes were said.
Sunday 12th – Its all over!
I drive home after again being fed and watered to face pages to emails, posts and new members and the hum drum life of 2 pages of work emails to read though.
I think its been a huge success and we didn’t kill anyone, despite what many other so called official organisations would say. I am sure many people have left with amazing memories, pictures and knowing they have pushed themselves further then they thought possible. Everyone at the Big bash Achieved something! Well done.
Posted on UK Caving to make cavers all jealous they are not as hard core as us mine explorers :tease:
I'm sure we can arrange some pro bono legal cover if there's any problem. 8)
