Basically, it's possible to get out of Moel Fferna with a minimal amount of SRT experience, but the bottom of a 30' hole is not the best place to learn from scratch!

I'll vouch for that.......

I learnt how to SRT coming out of here. What a song and dance that was. Once over the bottom bit i was ok, apart from being soaking wet, tired and hungry

DP

I agree, the most awkward part of entering and exiting is the bottom 8 ft or so when getting into the addit. The rest of it as far as I can remember is not too bad as you can get your feet on the sides and there are several ledges. My view is perhaps a knotted thick rope could be used at the bottom 8 to 10 ft.
As for traveling up to the mine. Most of the track is tarmac, but only room for about 3 cars to park at the top without stress. The rest is about 20 mins walk.
Might be a good idea to meet as you say at the bottom and for us to bale in to the cars with the bigest internal capacity to go the top.
Anyone with a large estate car??

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I agree, the most awkward part of entering and exiting is the bottom 8 ft or so when getting into the addit. The rest of it as far as I can remember is not too bad as you can get your feet on the sides and there are several ledges. My view is perhaps a knotted thick rope could be used at the bottom 8 to 10 ft.
As for traveling up to the mine. Most of the track is tarmac, but only room for about 3 cars to park at the top without stress. The rest is about 20 mins walk.
Might be a good idea to meet as you say at the bottom and for us to bale in to the cars with the bigest internal capacity to go the top.
Anyone with a large estate car??

Given the numbers, I think 3 4x4s will do it in comfort and space! 😉

The bottom bit is the pain, certainly, although it's usually only two minutes of struggling and then the rest is easy. It can be rigged to make it easier and if I recall correctly, the last time SimonRL and I went there, we rigged it with two ropes, just in case.

It turned out that the third of our number badly pulled a shoulder muscle about half way up - and the second rope turned out invaluable in allowing me to ab back down and drag him out...

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If its only 30' why not just use an electron ladder? It'll be alot quicker and there will no messing about with harnesses/srt kit - getting it on/getting it off stashing it when you go down etc etc...

If its only 30' why not just use an electron ladder? It'll be alot quicker and there will no messing about with harnesses/srt kit - getting it on/getting it off stashing it when you go down etc etc...

I personally wouldn't want to do 30' on a wire ladder without some sort of safety backup, and I'm certain that any insurance would take an extremely dim view of that practice.
Basically, especially as this is a club organised trip, we HAVE to be harnessed (or equivalent) and roped (even on a ladder), in case of a slip from the ladder. 30 feet is a long way down, and a fall can be fatal from 10' (or even less).

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Lifeline the electron ladder - thats SOP, but still alot quicker than faffing with harnesses and using SRT on a very short single drop like that

Basically, especially as this is a club organised trip, we HAVE to be harnessed (or equivalent) and roped (even on a ladder), in case of a slip from the ladder. 30 feet is a long way down, and a fall can be fatal from 10' (or even less).

It's not a club organised trip! - merely a bunch of us going together, as is the way of such things. We will, of course, all be looking out for each other's welfare ;)

Anyway, nobody will be heading upwards unless they've got a harness on and are ascending a rope! The ladder will be present in case of emergency, but given I know of several people who have learnt SRT in that shaft, it's really not a big deal: anyone particularly nervous can also be lifelined :flowers:

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Wasn't suggesting it was a big deal...merely that you can get half a dozen people up and down an electron ladder in the time it takes someone to put on their SRT kit...and it doesn't leave you with the necessetity to either stash your SRT kit or drag it round the mine with you once you're down...then have to go through the rigmarole of putting it back on when its time to get out 🙂

Fear not, JB, there'll be plenty of time to sort out kit while people are ascending :)

If the worst comes to it, I'll deploy the pointy stick, which never fails to help people up the first 10' or so :lol: :lol:

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how come the airshaft is the only way into this mine now

Lifeline the electron ladder - thats SOP, but still alot quicker than faffing with harnesses and using SRT on a very short single drop like that

That, I believe, is the plan.

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how come the airshaft is the only way into this mine now

The other adits are either filled-in or run-in. This has however helped preseved Moel Fferna and any explorer will find it a fascinating mine with a good number of artefacts.

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would love a look but i dont know any srt yet

We're intending to rig it with ladders and lifeline people...

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that would be great as i live down the road from there

Is there any reason this trip has been limited to 10 people? I thought i'd put my name down :bored: & now I can't!
...Lister;~(

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I've upped it to 12 😉

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Moel Fferna is quite a straightforward mine to get into and to exit, but about 8 years ago Ed and myself had a bad experiance which could have ended with a cave rescue.
Luckily it did not and we often have a good laugh about it nowdays, but at the time it was quite frightening.
Anyway, a friend of ours which I will refer to as Mr X which was really interested in the written history of slate mines had asked us to take him down Moel Fferna. He said he would be ok on ropes.
We entered the mine using a 19mm knotted rope, a safety line and another for for just in case.
Got down no problem and had a good look around.
Then it was time to get out. Ed climbed to the top first to be followed by Mr X.
There was a steel barrel at the bottom of the pit at that time and Mr X was standing on it and just could not climb the knotted rope, even without being by helped by the safety rope. He really pannicked and got into a state saying wanted me to get the Mountain/cave rescue to get him out.
So I quickly tied the safety rope around his chest under his arms, then onto his harrness belt and shouted at Ed 'pull on the safety rope as if you were pulling a bear off your Grandmother' (an old Welsh saying).
So Ed put the rope around the tree at the top and pulled as I was pushing Mr X up with my shoulder.
Up Mr X went as I was shoving him an Ed's pulling with all our might.
When we got about half way up Mr X was absolutely terrified and had let go of the knotted rope by now was spinning around on the streching rope every time I was climbing up to get a grip for my feet for pushing him up with my shoulder.
But believe me we were going up pretty quick as we wanted to get the job done without the embaresing involvement of cave rescue.
When I reached the top there was Ed with sweat running down his hair and face thrugh the physical effort of pulling the rope. Mr X quickly recovered from the experiance, and we had a tour of the surface workings.
It was a situation that could have ended bad, but luckily it was sorted, and we all get a bloody good laugh when we talk about it.

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We're intending to rig it with ladders and lifeline people...

So is it not a SRT trip any more?

We're intending to rig it with ladders and lifeline people...

So is it not a SRT trip any more?

I believe you should still treat it as a srt trip Skimble its still a 30 odd feet drop with life line so a harness should be used but is not necessary 😉

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