Just a few observations/questions after a trip into Croesor this weekend. As it happened me and my accomplice had planned to camp there after doing the trip, but ended up camping out beforehand near the foot of the Croesor incline. We didn't have more than a few hours (weather was far too good to be underground all day!), hence no photos etc.

Anyway...

Croesor incline - when did that hole in the ceiling/fall occur onto the incline, just before the first abseil? Don't remember seeing it last time I went through (2 years ago), but then again maybe it was there. Looked a bit powdery and fresh.

Ropes on the two abseils seem in reasonable condition - I had plenty of time to inspect them as we came back out the same way (see below). Please make sure the blue sheet protection is properly on place on the first one before going down. The rope there and just below is getting a bit flat, which shows how hard it's pulled against the rock.

Ladder-bridge - absolutely fantastic! It was worth going in there just for that! Top effort, those involved.

Second bridge - what's the story with the missing zip-wire and improved traverse? To be honest I prefer the traverse, and it removes the temptation for people to step on the bridge support.

COD - the canoe was there, but badly waterlogged, had a plastic paddle left in it. I went down to inspect and decided it was too much work to bail it out. There was a flat dinghy that can probably be re-inflated. Neither vessel was attached to the rope, and the knot was at the far end, so I'm guessing whoever was last used their own boat and took it with them.

Foot-pump was present at the top of the abseil. I regret not donating the buoyancy aid I had with me, but will leave it behind next time. I'm a half-decent swimmer, but I fell in cold water recently and it's amazing how the shock can screw with you...

Without time to fix a boat, we chose doubled back. We carefully prussik'd up with as much finesse as possible, and didn't damage the ropes.

Hopefully I'll get back soon. Big thanks to all of those keeping the place maintained.

I'm looking for more detailed information related with both mines - Croesor and Rhosydd. How big is that entire system? I mean how much time it requires to explore it, not just to make CRTT?

Is there any place where I could download any plans from?

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Snap : Thanks for the update on the trip.:thumbup:

Always good to know what's going on in there. Not sure where you mean about the roof fall tho. Is it the one you travel round next to the opening into the big chamber on the right?

I am glad the Ladder bridge is still up and working well. IT took us ages to get that thing bolted back up and straight after the roof fall.

I believe the zip line was removed to stop people clipping the bridge support and glad to hear the traverse has been improved.

Did you notice a raft floating around in the COH, if so what state was it in?
It really bugs me that people will gladly carry a dinghy all the way up there to use but when it pops they think f**k it we will just leave it here 😞 After a while it looks horrible with all the dead boats 😞 (sorry that was not aimed at you :flowers: rant over)

Hispo33

You can find a lot of info on the 2 mines on this site. See the links bellow 🙂 To do a good explore of the 2 mines you will need a good few days in each mine.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Croesor-Slate-Mine/ 

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Rhosydd-Slate-Mine/ 

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Did the Croesor Rhosydd yesterday with Lab Rat and Matty.

State of play is pretty much as per Snap's post.

However - don't do it without taking your own inflatable dinghy

1st descent - all good - nice work with the new plastic bolted on rope protection :thumbsup: 9mm rope I think

2nd descent - all good - again nice work with the new plastic bolted to cliff face rope protection :thumbsup: 9mm rope I think, well lumpy on the bottom half of the abeil

Zip wire - all good

1st bridge - all good, whoever tidied up all the old ropes has improved it a lot

2nd zip wire / 2nd bridge - zip wire gone, now forms part of the improved traverse around to the back of the chamber and then back to the level

Birdge of death - changes every time!

More work as been done to the rail on the 1st half of the brdige, it's still lashed up to stop it bending, but it's been moved, and to be honest it puts you a bit out of balance 😮 Still, you're well clipped in.

I'd noticed the 2nd stage (the zip wire) had been moved previously, and you now need to pull yourself across.

Chamber of Horrors:

Dinghies - one dinghy in situ tied to the rope as Snap mentioned, we inflated this and it was good for one crossing but is punctured so will go down on you.

We took a dinghy and left this in situ. Both good dinghy and iffy dinghy are tied to the rope at the knot and at the bottom of the abseil from the Croesor side.

Canoe - was full of water, because of this and how it was tied up it made getting into the dinghies a bit tricky so we towed it across to the Rhosydd side and moored it out of the way to that iron spike at the bottom of the short ascent.

Also figured if it needed repair it would be easier to get to it from that side.

Lab Rat and I lifted it out and drained it, then put it back in the water but it filled up again so I guess it's holed 😢

Raft is out of the water piled up on the Rhosydd side (where somebody once tried to burn some dinghies), it looked to be in a few pieces 😢

For the moment then it's dinghies again - so don't set off without one!

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Snap - that collapse on the Croesor slope shaft is a good number of years old, it was there back in 2005.

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Thanks for the info Simon :thumbup:

John and I have been talking about getting back in there to repair / improve the raft so hopefully we will be able to do this in the next few months. Might take a fibre glass repair kit with me to fix the raft as well and see if things can be improved :thumbup:

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