Maypole Inlet Rescue

[anfieldman]

Thanks Rich. I'm going off to cook my dinner now. I'm bloody starving but I had to finish reading your account and the whole of this thread. Absolutely riveting! Glad you are all OK.


I also went to Pant Mawr a few weeks ago. We struggled to find the entrance too........................ and that was after the leaders in our group had paid a visit to it the week before so that we would have no trouble finding it! 

 

[SamT]

Top write up rich - cheers for sharing it with us, always nice to hear things, exactly as they occurred, from the horses mouth so to speak.

Note to self, never say things like "I'd love to see this streamway in flood"

Another note to self, take a gps if I ever visit Pant Mawr.

 

[Graigwen]

Actually, I have never been down Pant Mawr despite several attempts to do so.

I don't think this cave actually exists.

I think it was an in joke invented by SWCC and carried on by people who published photos of other caves and made up a spurious survey.....




Maybe Pwll Swnd is the same.

 

[Sid Weighells Dog]

NigR in 3..2..1.. 

 

[NigR]

OK.

Pant Mawr Pot does exist but can be difficult to locate. It is a fine cave, well worth a visit.
GPS reference is SN 89095 16131, Altitude 437m.

Ogof Pwll Swnd also exists but is even harder to find. Whilst not so aesthetically pleasing it is also worthy of a trip. However, it is both technically and physically more demanding and should not be underestimated. If there is anyone who has failed to locate the cave in the past and would like to try again with the aid of an accurate GPS reference just PM me and I will send it to you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sid Weighells Dog]

Wow.

OK.

Saucy new girlfriend in 3..2..1...

 

[graham]

OK.

Pant Mawr Pot does exist but can be difficult to locate. It is a fine cave, well worth a visit.
GPS reference is SN 89095 16131, Altitude 437m.

Ogof Pwll Swnd also exists but is even harder to find. Whilst not so aesthetically pleasing it is also worthy of a trip. However, it is both technically and physically more demanding and should not be underestimated. If there is anyone who has failed to locate the cave in the past and would like to try again with the aid of an accurate GPS reference just PM me and I will send it to you.

Hope this helps.

How accurate does it have to be?

 

[mrodoc]

I was interested in NigR's reference to free climbing the pitches in the Nave. We did it a year or two ago and looking at them I did think they could be freeclimbed if pushed (I would have to be pushed hard). In fact I thought i would have to climb the last but one after I pulled the pull through rope out of reach and thought I had left the knot in the end . I didn't realise the Crevasse pitch into Pendulum Passage was free climbable though - which end of the rift would you do it?

 

[oli]

[/quote]

Blimey, so 4 hours 45 minutes from Cwm Dwr entrance to the Confluence! In the late 60s Aber used to do that in about 45 minutes (unless we got lost in the Big Shacks, which was often!) and that was before the passage of cavers cleared out the long crawl.


[/quote]

what i love about ACC is that despite 60 years of experiance, the odd name change, and a few breif flirtings with above ground compatence our organisational ethos remains undented. you got lost, we got lost, you often get lost, we often get lost. ask chris n ritch about pant mar.

 

[graham]

I was interested in NigR's reference to free climbing the pitches in the Nave. We did it a year or two ago and looking at them I did think they could be freeclimbed if pushed (I would have to be pushed hard). In fact I thought i would have to climb the last but one after I pulled the pull through rope out of reach and thought I had left the knot in the end . I didn't realise the Crevasse pitch into Pendulum Passage was free climbable though - which end of the rift would you do it?

All the Nave pitches are free-climbable. Not by me, but I've watched as Clive Owen did them.

 

[oli]

also, once again, thankyou all loads.

 

[NigR]

OK.

Pant Mawr Pot does exist but can be difficult to locate. It is a fine cave, well worth a visit.
GPS reference is SN 89095 16131, Altitude 437m.

Ogof Pwll Swnd also exists but is even harder to find. Whilst not so aesthetically pleasing it is also worthy of a trip. However, it is both technically and physically more demanding and should not be underestimated. If there is anyone who has failed to locate the cave in the past and would like to try again with the aid of an accurate GPS reference just PM me and I will send it to you.

Hope this helps.

How accurate does it have to be?

Accurate enough to help you find the cave you are looking for?

I didn't realise the Crevasse pitch into Pendulum Passage was free climbable though - which end of the rift would you do it?

From the bottom, looking up (i.e. the way you would reach it in the event of using Pendulum Passage as an escape route) you climb the near end of the rift in a sort of diagonal direction to begin with. It's just a chimney really, not too difficult but fairly strenuous. Be careful if you try it in the reverse direction though (i.e. going down) because it bells out towards the bottom and you need to get your angle of approach right. Far easier and safer just to abseil!

 

[graham]

OK.

Pant Mawr Pot does exist but can be difficult to locate. It is a fine cave, well worth a visit.
GPS reference is SN 89095 16131, Altitude 437m.

Ogof Pwll Swnd also exists but is even harder to find. Whilst not so aesthetically pleasing it is also worthy of a trip. However, it is both technically and physically more demanding and should not be underestimated. If there is anyone who has failed to locate the cave in the past and would like to try again with the aid of an accurate GPS reference just PM me and I will send it to you.

Hope this helps.

How accurate does it have to be?

Accurate enough to help you find the cave you are looking for?

I didn't realise the Crevasse pitch into Pendulum Passage was free climbable though - which end of the rift would you do it?

From the bottom, looking up (i.e. the way you would reach it in the event of using Pendulum Passage as an escape route) you climb the near end of the rift in a sort of diagonal direction to begin with. It's just a chimney really, not too difficult but fairly strenuous. Be careful if you try it in the reverse direction though (i.e. going down) because it bells out towards the bottom and you need to get your angle of approach right. Far easier and safer just to abseil!

Nig, sorry, misread your post. I thought you'd given a 10 figure reference & then said people should PM you for an accurate one for the same site!

 

[NigR]

Nig, sorry, misread your post. I thought you'd given a 10 figure reference & then said people should PM you for an accurate one for the same site!

No problem, Graham. Wasn't too sure what you were getting at, hence my somewhat fatuous response.

Just out of interest, any GPS reference I put on here will have been taken by myself at the site in question using a handheld GPS. So far as accuracy goes, I would expect it to be good to around 10 metres horizontally and 5 metres vertically, sometimes better, sometimes worse. In practical terms, it will get you into a position on the ground where you will be able to find the cave you want, either by looking around you or wandering about for a short while. In the case of Pant Mawr Pot it should definitely be the former as it is a huge gaping hole surrounded by a wooden fence in an otherwise featureless moor!

 

[gus horsley]

Good account.  It brought back memories of the Hades rescue in the early 1980's when several members "disappeared" in the Main Streamway for nearly 24 hours.  The main streamway on that occasion rose so fast that it was impassable when I got to the Confluence a couple of hours after the call-out, probably about 10ft deep in water.  The cavers managed to sit it out in Marble Showers and a new section of crawl was excavated to get them out.  You can't underestimate the power of a flood pulse.

 

[Sid Weighells Dog]

One way to find Pant Pawr Pot from SWCC without a GPS, is to walk along the wall and keep an eye on the skyline ahead - when you see a hill in the shape of a whale complete with blowhole, stop and look to your left, Pant Mawr is about 200 yards away.

 

[NigR]

You can't underestimate the power of a flood pulse.

It's raining pretty heavily here in South Wales at the moment and has been for several hours.

Not trying to stifle anyone's spirit of adventure but I would like to suggest that it might not be the best time to go anywhere particularly flood-prone.

 

[Graigwen]

One way to find Pant Pawr Pot from SWCC without a GPS, is to walk along the wall and keep an eye on the skyline ahead - when you see a hill in the shape of a whale complete with blowhole, stop and look to your left, Pant Mawr is about 200 yards away.

That sounds very much like the advice used on the second occasion we failed to find the entrance to Pant Mawr. I don't know if it was supposed to look like a whale but I recall discussion about what the shape of a hill on the skyline looked like. Anyway, we never found the cave.

 

[Pyro]

I head along the path up and right of OFD top entrance and stay on this. After about 45 mins you should come to a wooden gate on the footpath with a sign showing points of interest in the area. Carry on this path and you will soon have a low, weather dry stone wall running parallel to the path on your left.

I stay on the path until the dry stone wall runs off 90 degrees to the left. I also turn left here and follow the wall until I come to another path (now running perpendicular to the wall you've just followed). Turn right along this path (You should be going slightly uphill) and look into the field on your left - you'll see the fenced off area around Pant Mawr easily from here. If its a foggy/cloudy day you will come across a path, though not very obvious, to your left, heading down in the field towards Pant Mawr.

Thats how I find it anyways, though this is slightly off topic now  :-[

 

[Graigwen]

Thats how I find it anyways, though this is slightly off topic now  :-[

Rubbish! It was off topic when started....but interesting (well, at least to me).