Belfry Bulletin Number 282 by Belfry Bulletin

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B.B. ____________________________________ Volume 25 Number 2 March 1971 No 282 ____________________________________ CONTENTS Caving Monthly Notes No. 38 M.R.O. Dan-yr-Ogof Yugoslavia

11 11 13 14

Climbing 4,000’s in Winter Climbing Meets

10 12

Miscellaneous Crossword No.9

AU FOND DES GOUFFRES One hopes that the detractors of Mendip’s potential will have received quite a jolt with the discovery of Rhino Rift by John Cornwall and his team. This remarkable hole by Mendip standards goes down over four hundred feet with something less than fifty feet of horizontal development if the estimates turn out to be correct and give Mendip something very like a Yorkshire pothole. It only needs a South Wales type cave to be discovered at the bottom going the best part of the way to Cheddar to give Rhino Rift a national standing. We hope, of course, to be able to obtain an account for the B.B. on the not too distant future. Meanwhile, North Hill proceeds steadily downwards under the direction of NHASA and threatens to become Mendip’s toughest descent. The story about Mendip being played out; lacking hairy cave and being on too small a scale begins happily to be less credible. STAL STILL

Club Business Notices

Editorial

In this same happy mood, it is good to note that the decorations on Shatter cave seem to be standing up well to the passage of time and cavers. With a few notorious exceptions – like the erratics which have been carelessly and quite unnecessarily TRAMPLED through by some unimaginative moron, the cave is still very photogenic – thanks to the care of the Cerberus, to whom all credit is due. If anyone doubts the need for, or effectiveness of a decently controlled gating system, here, is its vindication.

THAT BOX! Leaving no gimmick unexplored, a mail box has been recently installed in the Belfry with the idea that it might just prompt someone to write a letter or even an article for the B.B. So far, the Editor’s key has revealed nothing but a few wood shavings left over from the box’s manufacture – but we can still hope! POSTAL DEPARTMENT The Editor has actually had several offers of HELP recently which are being taken up and might result in a stable system for the addressing and sending out of the B.B. Keep your fingers crossed! “Alfie” _______________________________________________________________________________________ It is possible to RING UP the Belfry. The telephone number of the first Mendip caving hut to be on the ‘phone’ is WELLS 8697. The correct postal address of the Belfry is: - The Belfry, Wells Road, Priddy, Wells, Somerset, BA5 3AU.

The 4,000’s in

The warden at Loch Morlich S.Y.A. hostel was muttering things like ‘If anyone goes up there today, he wants his head read.’ Unperturbed, we continued to check and pack our gear. Soon, the sound of words like ‘social irresponsibility’ reached our ears, so without more ado; we grabbed our packs and fled into the early dawn light of a very dark January day. Our aim was to ascend all the 4,000 peaks in the Cairngorms – though we doubted if we could do it under these foul conditions. My companion for the day was a ski instructor from the hostel – I was there on ten days holiday.

Winter by Steve Grime

Piling our gear into the car, we set off for Coire Cas car park and, as we passed the tree line of Rothiemurchus Forest, we passed through the clag and burst into brilliant sunshine. There wasn’t a single cloud above us. We were jubilant. One can imagine the things we said about the wardens of Scottish Youth hostels.

We left the car at 9.15 and, with ski strapped to our packs, struck off to the west heading for the Sinclair Hut. Crossing the Lairag Ghru path and passing the Sinclair Hut, we ascended the slopes Sron na Lairag and reached the first decent snow and kicked our way up to it at a good fast rate. On the summit of Sron na Lairag we were able to put on our skis and had a nice half mile or so run to the base of the final climb to the top of Braeriach (4,248). From Braeriach, we had a good run on hard snow to Einich Cairn (4,061) and then to spot height 4,149. From there, we walked to the edge of the coire and peered in. The snow scenery was out of this worls and cornices hung on every edge (we didn’t get too close) and the walls were plastered. Not a rock showed anywhere. It was really beautiful. Returning to our skis, we clipped in and slid down to the start of the climb to the top of Cairn Toul (4,241). Here we had our second rest of the day, the first being at the summit of Braeriach. It was then that the thought of ‘doing the Ben’ first crossed our minds. It looked so close that one felt one only had to reach out to touch it. We turned our task and climbed the five hundred feet or so to the summit. From here, the view was truly splendid – even better than when John Manchip and I were there in similar conditions in November 1967. Wave on wave of mountains reared up north and west. Visibility was such that I have never known before. Ben Wyvis looked as if it were a mere stone’s throw away when in fact it was nearer sixty miles from where we stood. The Kintail and Torridon mountains were white blobs floating of a sea of cloud, and the Trossachs to the south west merged as one into a seemingly vast plateau. However, time was pressing so we plunged down the north east arête of the hill into the lairag Ghru. At 2.15, we reached the side of the Dee opposite Taylor’s Burn and stopped for lunch. Peter said he wanted to go into Loch Aron after Ben Macdui so, as I wished to do the Cairn Lochan, we parted arranging to meet on the Cairn Gorm summit. I crossed the Dee at 3 pm and arrived at the summit of Ben Macdui at 4.10 pm in a bit of a sweat. After a twenty minute rest, I put on my skis and followed the tracks Barry Abley (a work colleague) and myself had made the previous day. The snow on top was quite hard and my skis made a nice crisp swishing noise as they passed over it. In the hollows, out of the wind, it was a little slushy and progress was slower. As I followed the ridge, or rather plateau rim, round to Cairn Lochan the sun finally sank below the horizon in a lurid red glow, and by the time I had reached the cairn on Cairn Gorm it was almost dark. It was dark by the time Peter joined me. I had seen him as a dark spot moving slowly across the snowy wastes of Coire Raibeirt from the gap containing the Uisage Burn. A slow but hairy descent of an iced up White Lady run in the dark brought us to the foot of the hill and then we walked down to the car park and drove down to the hostel. Over dinner we talked about going to Fort William and putting the ‘Ben’ on the list for the twenty four hours so, packing up once more; we drove

11 through the snow to Glen Nevis. We slept in the car until 4 am and then after a quick breakfast, set off up the path. The only sounds were those of our breathing rasping and our feet stumbling over what must be the worst popular hill path in the country. That the weather was turning was pretty obvious. However, we kept going until the halfway lochan just to see if we were going to rise above the cloud. After another few hundred feet it was plain for all to see that a real stinker was blowing up and there’s not much fun to be had out of milling around on mountain sides in the dark in a young blizzard trying to navigate by torchlight with a soggy map. The only possible thing to do was to retreat, and this we did with alacrity. We piled back into the car and scurried through the murk to Inverness where Dorothy was staying with her folk’s and arrived there in time for a late breakfast. Date: (Discounting the ‘Ben’.)

21 miles. Distance: 9,800 feet. Height Gain: Crampons on ice. Taylor’s Burn 10 miles approx. Ski Runs 9 hrs 15 mins. Time (car-car) _______________________________________________________________________________________

Monthly Notes No. 38

By “Ben”

Rhino Rift It can no longer be news that the great engineering project (including the Trans-Rhino Rift railway and Control Room) has resulted in a cave. After a few preliminary discoveries, the Rhino Rift team broke into a nicely stalactited chamber which forms the top of an large shaft, thirty feet across and a hundred feet deep. This ends in a steeply sloping stalagmited boulder slope leading to a spacious fifty five foot pitch followed immediately by a more rift-like pitch of eighty feet. The bottom of this third pitch, some 280 feet below the top of the first pitch, is quite large also and the prospects of further discoveries at this point are very good. There is at present quite a lot of loose rock on the ledges and in the third shaft. When this is cleared the descent will become much safer and will become the longest and most pleasurable vertical descent on Mendip. The prospects around the top of the shaft are also good, and the R.R. team are likely to be kept quite busy in the next few months.

Reservoir Hole The dig in the terminal boulder choke is looking promising, but is becoming rather hazardous. Stobart’s Hole Entered by Messrs Stobart and Harvey after about three hours work in the face of the Tarmac Quarry at Shipham. It is about fifty five feet up the face and consists of a very loosed by spacious rift some fifty feet long. North Hill This has also gone to the extent of yielding a hundred and fifty feet of passage ending in an impossible light section. Even Fred Davies is stuck at present at this point. Yorkshire - Whitsun Anyone interested in a trip to Yorkshire at Whitsun (May 29 – 31) visiting Alum Pot, Disappointment Pot and Ireby Fell Cavern should contact TIM LARGE at 16 Meade House, Wedgewood Road, Twerton, Bath, Somerset.

Climbing Meets

The following Climbing Meets have been arranged: SCOTLAND NORTH WALES CORNWALL PEMBROKE GOWER COAST

9h to 20 April. 7th to 9th May. Whitsun and August Bank Holiday. 24th to 26th September. 15th to 17th October.

There are additional meets in North Wales between these dates. Contact ‘Fred’ Atwell for details. _______________________________________________________________________________________

M.R.O.

Every caver on Mendip is a member of the M.R.O. and may find himself on a rescue at some time or other. That means YOU and the M.R.O. may well need YOUR help one day. To enable the B.E.C. to play its full part in rescue work, as many of its members as possible MUST be on an efficient call-out system. PLEASE send the following information to TIM LARGE at 16 MEADE HOUSE, WEDGWOOD ROAD, TWERTON, BATH, SOMERSET as soon as you can.

Your home and work phone number if any. Whether you are prepared to help underground or on the surface. Whether you have transport, what is consists of and how many people will it hold besides yourself. How long have you been caving and what Mendip caves you have a thorough knowledge of. Whether you have any special knowledge of little parts known parts of cave systems. What real and practice rescues you have been on and whether you are qualified in any kind of first aid. PLEASE take this seriously. It is a serious subject. NOBODY wants to be called out on rescues but if you are fit and active or have knowledge and experience and do nothing towards putting these at the service of the M.R.O. some poor bloke might well die who could be alive but for your laziness or selfishness. Think about it. No DO something about it. Go on, do it now. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Have you got an old WHEELBARROW? You know the sort of thing. It has one wheel, two handles and flies. If you have, or you know anyone who has – preferably a contractor’s barrow BRING IT TO THE BELFRY or contact the Hut Engineer. Perhaps you can LEND us a barrow at a pinch (you might even get it back again if you’re lucky!) The Committee would like to record their thanks to Nigel Rich for the donation of two hundred Christmas trees for the Belfry site. THERE WILL BE ANOTHER EVENT AT THE BELFRY ON SATURDAY THE 22ND OF MAY. THIS WILL BE PRECEDED BY A TACKLE AFTERNOON AT WHICH THE ONE AND ONLY NORMAN (“Tacklemaster”) PETTY WILL BE PRESENT IN PERSON TO SHOW HOW B.E.C. TACKLE IS CONSTRUCTED. DO NOT MISS THIS ASTOUNDING AND UNREPEATABLE DEMONSTRATION…..FOLLOWED BY AN EVENING’S BEER, SONG AND FIRE PREVENTION. Thanks to our old friend and club member ‘Tessie’ Burt (Nee Storr) who has recently sent a donation to the club and who will be pleased to see old friends when they are in London. The number is Harpenden 62588 and the address is 66 Roundwood Lane, Harpenden, Herts. WET SUITS can be obtained at a discount price. £12 for a nylon lined kit. Double skin available if required. We must get TEN orders for this discount price. HOW ABOUT YOU? Contact TIM LARGE, 16 MEADE HOUSE, WEDGWOOD ROAD, TWERTON, BATH, SOMERSET. Have you paid your sub yet?

Dan

-yrOgof

A group of us visited the South Wales Caving Club Headquarters of January 7th for one of our regular fortnightly trips into O.F.D. where we have spent most of the winter caving weekends in exploration. A friend (Martin) from S.W.C.C. said that he was going into Dan-yr-Ogof to remove eighty feet of electron ladder from Rottenstone Aven in D.Y.O. II. This was to be replaced with nylon line hung from a rawlbolt. Since trips into the cave require an S.W.C.C. leader, we jumped at the chance to join Martin. Buckett and I always take wet suits with us, just in case we are offered a trip into Dan-yr-Ogof. Bert’s neoprene bags barely resemble a suit, so he left them at home in Wycombe. However, he managed to borrow some wet suit trousers which helped. Dan-yr-Ogof is, in places, very wet.

The show cave is closed for the winter months, so we had to go in by the river entrance. This is some thirty feet below the show cave entrance and is quite impressive in itself, with plenty of water resurging from it. The water is several feet deep in places, and the current pretty strong. Before daylight is lost, a climb into a hole in the roof from which a small stream trickles leads us through a gated grille into the show cave. On concrete paths, the walk to the lake is easy. There seemed to be no spectacular formations in the show cave, but Martin gave a very talented tourist guides description of the various bits of stal. We soon dropped down to the lakes, which form the main part of the stream. Traversing the edge of these, Bert caused much amusement in his topless wet suit. The lakes are largely deep and slow moving and have a floor of that irritating sand that gets into boots all too easily. Leaving the roomy passage for low roofed boulder-stream chambers followed by a high narrow rift passage, we eventually arrived at the beginning of the endless crawl. This seemed neither long nor arduous as expected, although much heat was generated by all. A right angle bend proved to be much easier than that in Blue Pencil. If, at one time, there were any very tight or awkward parts, these must have been removed with bang or the passage of very many cavers. At the end of the crawl, a descent via ample ledges, followed by a fixed chain ladder allows one to drop straight into the Grand Canyon in Dan-yr-Ogof II. The Grand Canyon is full of straws, up to five feet or more in length, and they are clustered in groups of several hundred. In spite of the high roof, it is necessary in many places to duck in order to avoid damaging them. On shelves at the sides there are many small helictites. A short distance along the Grand Canyon is a fine pool, almost filling the width of the passage and containing orange crystals and soapflakes. On the journey out, we gingerly picked our way round the far side of this pool and climbed into Flabbergasm Chasm. Here are some superb straws. Although few in number, they are up to ten feet long. One has a large pendant stal attached and seems to sway gently. All looked so fragile that we tiptoed past, hardly daring to breathe. Grand Canyon ends in a short climb, and the Green Canal lies immediately ahead. This is a narrow twisting rift containing deep, cold, green water. Bert used a lilo mini dinghy to get through the two hundred feet of canal and paddled with feet dangling over the sides, for all the world like a troglodyte duck (such creatures DO exist – see the Caves of Northwest Clare.) The canal is only wide enough for a swimmer to pass the lilo safely in one or two places. Not wanting to be held up treading water and rapidly freezing, we waited for Betrt to disappear from sight and sound. This took some time, for firstly he played and spun round in the water, and then he is a noise fellow anyway. I set off at racing speed, splashing water everywhere, only to find Bet attempting to hide from my wrath in the nearest passing place. I set up eddies, spinning Bert out of control, until Buckett came along and set the poor fellow to rights again. On the return journey, we discovered that we had swum much further than necessary – we could have stood up after a hundred feet or so! Rottenstone Aven. The name could hardly be more apt. Loose boulders abound, and the landings off the ladder both top and bottom, are quite nasty. The upper one is a ledge of boulders, cemented loosely with mud. While the rawlbolt was being fitted, we traversed a mud and boulder ledge and crossed a very narrow slippery bridge made of similar materials to the ledge from which Bert nearly discovered the quickest way to the bottom of the aven. Climbing a steep mud slope, we came to a couple of chambers a hundred and fifty feet above the aven floor. From the roof of each hung many beautiful white delicate tree-like formations,

14 composed of helitites and calcite crystals. Some looked like inverted corals in bunches of about three inches in diameter. The ladder had been in the aven six months, and looked like it. All but Buckett descended using the ladder, while he finally let down the ladder and abseiled down on a new nylon line. Having noshed, we set off rapidly for the first rising. Here, water from the sink Waen Fignen Felen appears from a sump but soon vanishes into the boulders on the floor. Water from the much larger sink Sink-y-Geidd is seen again only in D.Y.O. I in the lakes and at the resurgence. Clearly, much large passage remains to be discovered. We did not go into D.Y.O. III, but it is reached via a fixed ladder through a hole in the roof near the rising. We emerged after an excellent, though not technically difficult seven hour trip, to a fine evening with full moon and pale starts twinkling. A fitting end to a trip into such beautiful system. _______________________________________________________________________________________

A few days

Yugo-

Slavia

Unlike hitching from Austria into Yugoslavia, hitching in Yugoslavia is very much easier and I had soon found the Karts Research Centre for Slovenia in Postojna. There I was shown their fine museum and given the address of the Jamerski Klub Ljubljana, and was told that they met every Friday at 7 pm. The next day being Thursday, I went to the famous Postojnska Jama in Postojna. The trip in the cave lasted a hundred and five minutes and was made up of about two kilometres in the train and a walk of about a mile. It was really magnificent. All of the cave was shown as abundant with formations. The lighting was perfect and the English speaking guide very informative. Later that day, I went to the Predjamski Grad, which is a castle in the entrance to a cave. The cave behind the castle is about five kilometres long but it is not for the public’s eye. On Friday, I hitched back to Ljubljana and eventually found an insignificant door along a dingy corridor. After a look around the town, I returned at 7 pm. After an hour in the clubroom, we went out for a few beers and as the Yugoslavians could speak very good English, I found the evening interesting, informative and, of course, boozy.

The next day, I found myself travelling by car to Idrija which is about forty kilometres from Ljubljana and soon after an excellent picnic meal, there of us were donning wet suits and diving equipment (designed for sea diving) and passed a forty metre long sump in a resurgence cave called Ukovnok. This sump was passed for the first time the weekend previous to my visit, and the purpose of this trip was to survey the cave and to dive the second sump. Both were unsuccessful. The clinometer was lost, probably in the first sump and the dive into the second sump only resulted in a small bell being found.

by Colin Priddle

After we had explored the complex of small passages near the second sump, I wandered further back in the cave, went though a small passage and found a large chamber which bypassed the second sump. After showing the Yugoslavs this chamber, they promptly named it Pope’s Hall and we soon found the third sump and a static sump at one end of the chamber. To carry diving equipment to this sump would have been far too strenuous (the kit was twin sixties) which was a pity, as they were perfect looking sumps. Further back in the cave, we found another side passage and they insisted that I went first. Unfortunately it ended after about fifty metres. We had, however, doubled the length of the cave as we finally dived out. In the morning on the way to the cave, I was shown a huge resurgence below a hundred metre high cliff face. The resurgence is a lake about forty metres square with a river running off at one end. The resurgence has been dived to a depth of forty metres, but has proved too be too big for divers to see where they were going. The lake is called Divje Jezero (The Wild Lake). Upon returning to Ljubljana, I had dinner in one of the caver’s homes and as I had to be up early in the morning, I went back to the clubroom to sleep. It should be noted that I missed one of the best booze-ups in Ljubljana as that night the Yugoslavian-American basketball match took place, resulting in Yugoslavia wining the world championship. At 5.45 SUNDAY MORNING I was up and half an hour later on the train at the station. It is surprising how busy the place is at that time, but apparently it was quieter than usual on that occasion, owing to the celebrations the night before. At eight o’clock, we were having a picnic meal and shortly afterwards,

15 changing for the cave. The cave we were going into was not far from Postojna and it is a lovely national park, wooded, with deep limestone windows looking down on the underground river Rak. There are two rock bridges over the limestone windows. As we were changing, one of the cavers was chopping down a large pine tree, with another shouting in English, “But this is a National Park!” I was amazed when the tree, with its side branches out off, was carried into the cave. About a hundred metres inside the cave, it was used as a bridge and was certainly better than getting wet. The cave we were in is called Zelske Jama, the series Julhi Rov and the passage Blata which means muddy. It was very muddy and unfortunately my caving clothes were the only clothes I had in Yugoslavia. At the end of this muddy passage was a boulder choke and a sump that looked easily diveable. The object of the trip was to bang (they say mine) at the top of the boulder choke, where there was a howling wind. There is almost certainly lots of large cave beyond. After two bangs, the passage was open but not yet safe, so we had to return as we had no fuse left for further banging. For the information of bang experts, the Yugoslavians use a slow burning fuse, home made mercury fulminate detonators and T.N.T. obtained by breaking open German bombs left over from the war. The bombs are stacked in several caves. I was shown a further part of the series, very big and pretty and then we went out to fester in the sun for a couple of hours before going to catch the train to Ljubljana. In Slovenia, which is the northern part of Yugoslavia, they have about three thousand five hundred explored caves and only about thirty five cavers – not all of those very active. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, the following has been sent us by Bob Bagshaw… On a cave survey which we received recently form the States, certain musical notations were used. To keep the B.E.C. up to date, a group of armchair troglodytic scientists have set up a special study group. Their preliminary report indicates some of the lines on which the Americans may now be working. The group of armchair troglodytic scientists now require some measurements to be carried out underground and are looking for some unusually clever keen erudite robust souls to investigate the notes emitted by strategically placed stalactites when struck by a standard laboratory hammer (e.g. the base of a carbide lamp containing a specified quantity of Belfry carbide) under varying climatic conditions. They will appoint and Acting Sound Surveyor who will ascertain which stalactites should be included in a survey to facilitate musical route in finding caves. Due to the lack of space, the full deliberations of the Group of Armchair Troglodytic Scientists cannot be published, but the above gives some idea of their reasoning and special hopes. I.N. Itial _______________________________________________________________________________________ Christmas Puzzle At present, “Sett” gets the two pints of beer, unless somebody else comes up with a more ingenious solution. Answer and final winner will be given in next month’s B.B. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Have you paid your sub yet?

16 MONTHLY CROSSWORD – Number 9. Across: 1

5 7

1. Use twit for strenuous caving. (3,4) 4. Initial form of bang. (1,1) 5. Minor caving operation. (2) 7. Light in rift or chamber. (5) 9. Be tempers frayed in this series?. (9) 10. Diggers do this. (5) 11. Artistic inside of straw? (2) 13. Direction to go for further exploration. (2) 14. Muddled Rat’s egg to the Belfry from the Hunters? (7)

9 Down:

10 11

Solution To Last Month’s Crossword D M

P E

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L I

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A I E

I S

Stencils completed 16.4.71

D O

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1. “….will do it to excess.”? (2) 2. Is gun very mixed in this caving activity. (9) 3. Top of top? (2) 4. Type of charge. (7) 6. Stream to a cave. (5,2) 7. Mix paste to show the way. (5) 8. Custom may be exhibited in caves but not dress. (5) 12. Has been beheaded. (2) 13. Alternative. (2)