North Wales Trip - Day 2
Cwmorthin - The Site
A few miles outside Blaenau Ffestiniog is
Cwmorthin Quarry. It’s a slate quarry west of the village of Tanygrisiau, North
Wales. Quarrying on the site started in 1810. In 1860 it was connected to the
Ffestiniog Railway. In 1900 it was acquired by the nearby Oakeley Quarry and
the two were connected underground.
The Trip
Our site burst into song at around 6am. The first birds set off the rest.
For me it was a break from the snoring after sharing my tent with 3 hairy
cavers. Breakfast from the Co-op: hot and cold food; then off the Cwmorthin car
park that we had parked at the day before. Yesterday we had 11 underground and
today it was 10: James; Geoff; Slug; Becca; Dave; Barry; Sam; Graham; Alex and
Aaron (Me).
Like a precision military manoeuvre. We all landed at 9.30am, James had
the key. We got sorted and headed up the huge mountain. (30 min walk). The
scenery around the lake is breathtaking. We took it all in then made our way to
the entrance. The mine looked very well looked after which is rare these days.
The deeper we went the more it opened up until we reached a large chamber with
an incline to the left. We decided to head down the incline in search of the
bridges. It didn’t take long to find them and blimey they are bigger than they
look in pictures.
We headed back to the incline and then found some very photogenic karts
and some old pumping machines. Somewhere around this point we descended the
famous staircase; a fantastic slate staircase. Later we found massive chambers,
scrambles, interesting rooms with old mining gear in and lots of route finding.
The rest of the cave included around 10 zip lines, traverses and
scrambles; a hugely interesting and challenging mine.
My favourite spot was the spiral traverse and the fast zip line! All ten
of us had a fantastic time and we hope to meet up again sometime soon.
Aaron
Smith
Day 2
cavers Michael Hale (Slug) all kitted up The Day 2 Team Barry