CRTT (sort of) with Lydia

Lydia sent me a message saying she wanted to come back to North Wales and do the Croesor-Rhosydd extension. Would I be willing to join? And when would I be available? I was! And we picked a weekend in august. And she asked if she could stay at my place. She could.

She had sent me a description of the extension. It contained zip wires, awkward traverses, and exposed bits. It sounded challenging. The zip wires as they are done with a tandem pulley, and Lydia doesn't have one. I do, but sharing one is a complete pain in the arse. The awkward traverses I was more comfortable with; I train my upper body strength exactly for that sort of purpose. If the kind of seasoned people who had written the description call something exposed, I probably find it VERY exposed. I have a healthy respect for heights you can fall off. 

I also remembered close to the day that the cave rescue team had removed the fixed rope at the start of the traditional trip. We would have to bring our own. My rope was too old! I retired it. But we wouldn't have any alternative. Lydia hadn't organised any additional people, and neither had I, as the people I had asked were not available.

The evening before I checked if I had enough paracord to be able to share a tendon pulley. I didn't. I took some shoelaces out of hiking boots. With that addition we probably would have enough!

We got up, got ready, and set off for Croesor. As I was bringing my rope I suggested we go there, go to the entrance, rig the first pitch, do the through trip, walk back to the Croesor entrance, retrieve the rope, then walk back to the car. And there was plenty of parking space still. Not bad for a summer Saturday!

We walked up and in. On our way to the first pitch Lydia confessed she had only done through trip once. Once? That meant she couldn't be relied on to know the way. And I had done it more often; most recently in April, but the previous times had been so long ago I only had vague memories of it. So basically, we were two people with effectively one useful experience in this system each. With some additional knowledge from me of the extremities, as we are often going in a modest distance from one of the entrances, either for cave rescue training or an actual rescue. I didn't think that was enough to do the extension. We have to rescue people all the time who are just doing the standard through trip. And there are two things that tend to go wrong. One is that people can't find the exit. On the other one is that there is a problem with the boat. 

The thing with this mine is that it contains a lot of flooded chambers that historically have had bridges through them, but many of these bridges have collapsed. So then you have to get to the other side in a different way. There are many different solutions. One chamber has a zip wire. Another one abridge improvised of ladders. Another one has traverses bolted into the wall. And one chamber is so big it has an old canoe in it. It is fixed to a rope, and that rope is attached on either side of the chamber. So if you get to the chamber, the boat is often on the other side. Just pull it towards you, descend into it, and pull yourself along the rope to the other side. But the rope has a tendency of snagging on something. If that happens, you have two options; swim, or turn back. But mining-related water is notorious because it is very deep, very cold, and often found in spaces with very steep sides. So swimming is not trivial!

If you decide to turn back you have to do all the obstacles in the reverse order, and that often means you do them slower. And you shouldn't be in this system if you haven't told someone by what time you should be out. If you are not out by the time they should phone the police. So if you get to the chamber with the boat, and you have to turn back, you need to have enough time to make it back to the entrance so you can tell your contact you are safe. You really want to avoid having a call-out for a spurious reason.

With these considerations in mind I said I was not willing to do the extension. There were two zip wires in there; imagine that one of us does the first one, and the second person tries to pull back the pulley, but the cord snags somewhere, and it doesn't work. Then we are somewhere in the middle of nowhere without a tandem pulley. That would be a major complication. Nothing we couldn't deal with; I also have a single pulley and I am sure I could do these zip wires with that if needs be. I have done zip wires on a karabiner. But it would be very time-consuming! And then if we would get to the chamber with the boat, and there was a problem with the boat, we probably wouldn't have enough time to get ourselves out of that situation before my contact would have to call the police. I was not willing to take that risk. Lydia had not asked me to lead this trip; she had just asked me to join, so I figured she would have the experience to fly through everything other than the extension. But it turned out that wasn't the case. I was okay leading a trip of the traditional route, as I turned out to be the one with the most experience, but not to do the extension. You shouldn't be careless with mines, or with (voluntary) rescue teams.

Lydia was briefly unhappy, but recovered. And we just proceeded the usual route. There was a fixed rope in position again! That was great, that saved us rigging. I would just leave the rope by the pitch and retrieve it on the way back. That saves a lot of weight. We descended. 

Descending the first pitch. Pic by Lydia

It took us some wandering to find the next pitch. That strengthened my resolve. If you can’t walk straight to the second pitch of the traditional trip, you have no business on the extension. 

After the second pitch all went smoothly: the zip wire/wire bridge, ladder bridge, balancing bridge, traverse. All good! Then we got to the chamber with the canoe. Lydia pulled on the rope and nothing happened. There clearly was a snag somewhere. Now what? There are two options: swim, or return. And the swimming is complicated by the fact that the water is at the bottom of a vertical pitch on this side. So you have to get into the water in SRT gear. Only on the other side can you walk into and out of the water. 

The wire bridge. Pic by Lydia

The bridge that doubles as a balance beam. Pic by Lydia

I wasn’t feeling it. I voted for a return. And Lydia wasn’t keen either. So back it was! And that means our intended Croesor-Rhosydd Through Trip never reached Rhosydd. It was just a Croesor trip! 

We got to the chamber with the zip wire and wire bridge without issues. Lydia said happily she could do the zip wire again. I reminded her that for us it now was an uphill zip wire, and I was going to use the wire bridge again. She saw my point and decided the same.

I’m not sure how it happened but at some point things went wrong. There was a scream and Lydia pivoted backwards, dipping her bag into the water. Then her feet came off the lower cable and she was in the water up to her waist. Not good! But she pulled herself to the shore again, and out of the water. So a lot of wet clothes and gear, but nothing worse. 

The second attempt was more successful. And then we made it without issues to the top of the lower pitch. There we found another party. We told them about the canoe. They needed a bit of time to decide what they would do with that information! We left them to it and went out. There I could let our call-out know we were safely at the surface.

Me texting our call-out.  Pic by Lydia

It had been an ok trip! Maybe not quite what we had in mind, but it’s a lovely mine. And the walk to and from the entrance is gorgeous. And luckily the weather was good! Which was a blessing, considering Lydia’s wet clothes. 

I would love to do the extension one day, but then in a more experienced company. And everyone should have all the required kit. How likely is that? Not sure! But if and when it happens it’ll end up here…