Belfry Bulletin Number 288

57

THE BELFRY BULLETIN ____________________________________ Number 288

October 1971

Volume 25 Number 10 ____________________________________ CONTENTS Caving Caving Log Llethrid & Tooth Caves Caving Sec.’s Report Lacave and Padirac

58 60 61 62

Climbing Climbing Sec.’s Report

59

Club Business Notices et.

63

Miscellaneous Monthly Crossword No. 15 63 ____________________________________ The Belfry Bulletin: Editor, S.J. Collins, Lavender Cottage, Bishop Sutton, Nr. Bristol.

Hon. Sec. A.R. Thomas, Allens House, Nine Barrows Lane Priddy, Wells, Somerset.

Editorial A.G.M. Once more, the Annual General Meeting has come round and gone by. This year produced no real surprises or fireworks, but it was nevertheless most encouraging to see the number of club members who took and active part in the proceedings.

As usual, prospective innovators had a hard time of it.

Pete Franklin’s resolution to separate the dates of the A.G.M. and dinner was defeated by the narrowest possible margin of one vote, but we are reminded that the late Don Coase took two years before he got his proposal to change the date of the A.G.M from the last Saturday in January to the first Saturday in October accepted – so Pete may well win out next year.

Plans for the B.B. to run quarterly were also voted against. Although the Chairman pointed out that this was not a resolution and thus did not bind the Editor to comply with it, we feel that it would be wrong to introduce a change which runs contrary to club feeling, and thus the B.B. will continue next year and in the future to come out once a month on the same lines as it does now.

Bearing this in mind, it is still proposed to celebrate the quarter century of the B.B. by improving it in a number of directions. More detailed plans for this will be announced later.

“Alfie” It was carried at vthe A.G.M. that the minutes published in the B.B. should be amended, and the words ‘Phil Coles voting against’ be deleted. Will all members please note.

Is your address known buy the club? Address lists will soon be published. If in any doubt LET ALAN HAVE YOUR CORRECT ADDRESS NOW.

CLUB OFFICERS Chairman of the Committee Ho.n Secretary Hon. Treasurer Caving Secretary Climbing Secretary

Alfie Collins Alan Thomas Bob Bagshaw Tim Large Nigel Jago

Hut Warden Tacklemaster Minutes Secretary Belfry Engineer

Dave Irwin Bill Cooper Dave Turner Pete Stobart

Other posts are at present as follows: Librarian - Dave Searle; Caving Publications Editor – Dave Irwin; B.B. Editor – Alfie Collins; B.B. Printer – Barry Wilton; Postal Dept. – Kay Mansfield.

58

from the Caving Log ….an occasional digest of the club’s caving activities …..by ‘Wig’

The last three months have been typical for the club’s activities for some time except perhaps for the starting of an outside dig.

On the 10th July, Martin Webster visited North Hill and on the next day went diving in Swildons to have a look at the Sump VI bypass. Martin says “A little bit of work done in Sump VI bypass, but in needs to be dug out a lot deeper.” Bill Cooper, our Tacklemaster, has been photographing and Jok has been taking novices down Swildons. On 16th of July, reported that someone unknown was blocking the hole at the lower end of the Water Rift. On the following day the blockage was completed and on the Sunday (18th July) Tim Large, armed with sledges demolished it completely and, with a small party, removed all the debris left by the builders.

Cwm Dwr in South Wales and Shatter Hole on Mendip were visited by members. Plantation Swallet was attacked by Bill Cooper and Jok. During the course of the next three months the entrance was excavated and an interesting side rift was discovered. Swildons still holds the position of being the most visited system on Mendip, except perhaps Cuthbert’s. Trips to North West Stream Passage; Black Hole; Shatter Series and free diving Sump IX were all undertaken. Of the lesser caves, Reservoir Hole; Cuckoo Cleeves and the Burrington Area were all noted in then log. On the 24th August, Swildons III was visited by Martin Webster who, with members of the C.D.G. dug out the Sump VI bypass on the return trip. Martin states that it’s easier to go through the sump!

A reconnaissance trip to the Merthyr area was undertaken by D. Sanderson on the 20th to 23rd of August and several sites of interest were noted. On the 22nd of August, a group of members bottomed Rhino Rift, while other caves visited during this time included Nine Barrows; Rod’s; Stole Lane; Eastwater and of course, Swildons. Dry conditions were encountered when messrs Bogeat and Abbott went to the Black Hole Series in Swildons and on the 11th September and Bill Cooper and Co. who visited Longwood/August on the 11th September.

During September, Pete Stobart, Jok and Co. erected a gigantic structure to ease working in Plantation, while at the same time Martin Huaun was in Spain and was a member of the W.C.C/S.M.C.C./B.E.C. party to bottom their discovery which is some 800ft deep. Meanwhile, Martin Webster was in Crete and visited Omalos Cave, Governator Caves with Ray Mansfield and Steve Wynn-Roberts. Work continues at the bottom of Hunters Hole by Pete Stobart, and on the 24th September, Plantation Dig became known as Plantation Chasm Dig!!

On the 29th, Graham Phippen free dived his way to Swildons IX and returned via the notorious Shatter Link. Dan yr Ogof was visited on the 5th September for photographing, as was Pant Mawr pothole.

St. Cuthbert’s has been plodding along quite well, and on the 5th July, Roy Bennett, Bill Cooper, Wig, Peter Rose and Bob Craig commenced work on the Sump II dam. During the course of the next four weeks, Roy continued to build the dam, helped by Colin Clarke, Wig, Phil Kingston, Pete Eckford, Dave Yeandle, Tim Large and in the last stages Bob Craig came back to finish the dam with usual expertise. (Replies to this are not printable).

Surveying dominated the scene as well, the Cuthbert’s Survey reaching its final stages – although it took its toll when a boulder fell on Martin Mills in the far reaches of Disappointment Passage. On the 27th August, Wig, Dave Turner and Grham Phippen visited September Series and noted several unentered passages there.

A large B.E.C. team went to Sump II to drain and bang the blockage on several occasions helped by S.M.C.C. while arrangements were being made to commence digging at the end of Gour Rift. Whether the attempts being made at these sites will prove successful or not remains to be seen. More next time.

59

Climbi ng Secs Report ….by the present Climbing Secretary

This year has seen much change in the Climbing Section as a whole – with more meets and a general trend towards better attendance at them.

At the start of winter, and throughout the year, Avon Gorge received its fair share of visits with individual members coming back to their old climbing grades thereby performing very well on some of the high grade routes (H.V.S. and X.S.) Cheddar, on the other hand received few visits, with normal ‘trade routes’ being done.

As the year wore on, North Wales accounted for several weekends when the snow was there. These did not go without incident as members from our own club were spent on mountain rescues after coming down from gullies.

Nigel Jago The highlight of the winter without doubt was the ten day meet at Glen Coe in Scotland, which was very well attended both on snow and rock. It yielded two fine routes at Glen Etive (Hammer and Spartan Slab – both Scottish V.S.’s.) Some gullies ‘grade II’ were ascended as the weather poured down sun for eight days.

In this bright spell, Aonach Eagach fell to the onslaught of the group which included office staff who, before that day, were believed to have lost the use of their legs!

As in the case of a party large in number, the needs of the tourist element was well catered for by Gerry Otan and Bob White, who did all the chauffeuring. Evenings were spent traditionally in some bar or other that sold beer – none were giving it away, of if they were, nobody told us about it!

At Whitsun, we travelled to Land’s End. The first day saw one of our members take to the air and fly with considerable aid from the navy helicopter and a member of the coastguards. Garry was then rendered armless for the rest of the weekend, after visiting a few old friends in Penzance Casualty Unit. Sunday was spent at Bosigran. Derek and I did Little Brown Jug (H.V.S.). On the easy way down, we heard Fred ‘Itraversed-to-the-right’ Attwell shouting for a top rope which was given to him a after great debate. After reaching the toip, Fred and Pete gave help on yet another rescue – this time not involving a member of the B.E.C. By reading this far, it is quite easy to understand why we are at times referred to affectionately as ‘part of the Avon Gorge Circus’.

The main event of the year was the Alps. Without doubt or hesitation. A rather beery fortnight starting and ending on the ferry boat. One mountain was topped – the Eiger by its west flank route in the second week by Bob Sell and partner. Our first camp site was reached at Chamonix after a total of eighteen hours in a not so fast Bedford twelve seater which was some twenty five hundredweight overloaded. The same day that we arrived, Fred and myself started for the Mulets Hut. After a gruelling afternoon, a superb bivvi was constructed in the best room of the old Telepherique Hotel at Pierre Pointue on the edge of the Bosson Glacier. After a cold bivvi, we started across the Bosson at eight o’clock, climbing in and out of crevasses when we could not jump them, reaching the Mulets Hut in five hours. We returned the following morning after rotten guts and lack of sleep and Fred being very disappointed that we did not reach the top. During our day at the hut, Derek Barrie and Rory tried to reach us by was of the other side of the glacier but failed because of a very deep and wide crevassed area. The party reluctantly packed themselves into the van the next day for Switzerland which again turned into an irritating drive into Interlaken. Apart from Bob’s ascent nothing was climbed, but most of the sites were toured by the party breaking into smaller groups.

Other members staying in Britain had good summer vacations doing plenty of routes in the main coastal climbing areas. August Bank Holiday was spent at Land’s End doing classic routes. Also, club members were responsible for climbing anew route at Chair Ladder area.

We hope to have as good if not better year this year, with all our meets having better attendances even on those cold wet weekends in North Wales!

60 The club has – amongst hoarded relics of some person or persons unknown – ice axes and guide books, which are getting increasingly hard to trace. Would these people return the club’s property, so that an accurate record can be made of what we possess?

Caving on Gower ………by Graham –Wilton-Jones

On the Friday evening preceding the Spring Bank Holiday, Buckett Tilbury and Graham Wilton-Jones set off up the A40 from High Wycombe for South Wales. Having avoided some of the holiday traffic jams, we arrived on the Gower just in time to collect the keys for Tooth and Llethrid Caves, and were thus set up for an early start on the Saturday. Kipping in the van just beside Llethrid Bridge made this situation very convenient.

Above Llethrid Bridge is a wide though shallow catchment for a reasonable sized stream. Recently, the Gower had been dry and there were several stagnant pools lying on the pebble bed. Only a small stream flowed, very slowly. Some two hundred yards below the bridge, the stream sinks into Llethrid Swallet. The main valley continues down to Parkmill, where the river resurges, over a mile from the sink.

From the gated entrance, a few yards above the swallet, a steep drop down through boulders gives access to the stream. The water was so low that we found it difficult to follow as it trickled its way under the jumbled mass of boulders. Some of these were supposed to be dangerously unstable, but we found none that were loose. There must be several routes through these boulders – we came through by two separate routes.

Soon the stream was lost altogether and we had to follow our noses. On two occasions we climbed up into the roof only to find ourselves in a large inlet passage with leaves and wet mud everywhere. Finally we came to a dead end and had to backtrack. The way on into the big chambers proved to be where I had climbed earlier. I had only checked one of three possible ways on. Bucket found that a second route that led directly to the Annexe.

The Annexe, and the adjoining Great Hall together form one enormous chamber which must be almost four hundred feet long and well over a hundred feet wide in places. It is generally not over fifty feet high.

Theses chambers are reputedly among the best decorated in Wales, but there is little comparison between the formations here and those in O.F.D. or D.Y.O. All the formations in the lower part of both chambers are covered with a thin layer of wet blackish mud. Only the stal in the upper part of Great Hall is free from this mud. The end of Great Hall is reached by climbing a long boulder slope, and is some hundred and fifty feet above the floor. Here there are some good pale yellow and white stal and also some good helictites. The black mud, which covers all formations less that about fifty feet from the floor, indicates that the chambers become submerged to this depth. Since the streamway continues some hundred feet below the floor of the Great Hall, the water must rise some hundred and fifty feet in extreme flood and this does not seem to be a rare occurrence.

Much of the stal – even columns ten feet long and a foot in diameter – have been broken near the floor and show a shift of between ten and fifteen inches between floor and roof. A likely cause is that the floor of boulders rests on thick mud, which gradually shifts and steles in a downward direction, thus fracturing any roof to floor stal. This is perhaps the most spectacular feature of the formations.

After a good look around these chambers, we climbed down a steep hundred foot mud slope and thence into a small chamber. The floor of this is a very thick spongy mass of wet leaves, no doubt deposited when the system sumps. A hole in the end drops through the leaves and into a continuation of the streamway.

There was no stream – only static pools – and very few of these. Like others through the cave, they were full of fresh water creatures including the usual shrimps and a white planarian.

In some places, banks of up to two feet thick of twigs had been deposited and subsequently cut through by the stream showing twig stratification. How much matter reached this spot; over a thousand feet from the entrance and through or over many obstructions, we cannot guess.

After several hundred feet of low or narrow stream passage, we reached the sump pool. There was a duck in a deep pool, beyond which we could see a larger airspace, but we didn’t bother to go through. This is being banged in the hope of gaining further passage beyond.

61 Returning to the big chamber, we spent about an hour taking photographs and then set off out, which only took about fifteen minutes, after a little route finding. The whole trip lasted just over five hours.

Tooth Cave is a further two hundred yards down the valley. The entrance has clearly been open for a long time, and the sides have been walled in and a gate put in the middle. The more narrow passage inside is full of large flies, large spiders and a couple of bats. A short squeeze brought us to the top of a small (twenty feet in diameter) chamber, whose walls were pure white with dead stal, rather reminiscent of Browne’s Hole.

We descended a fixed ladder and climbed into a rift at the side. A short way along, we dropped into a mass of boulders and thence to a crawl. From the guidebook description we had expected an obvious thousand foot crawl to a streamway. Instead we discovered a complete labyrinth of crawls, with one ‘stand-upable’ passage – all gravel floored; low; thrutchy and horrible. After about three quarters of an hours and two and a thousand feet of getting nowhere, we called it a day after a one and a quarter hour trip and vowed never to go there again. _______________________________________________________________________________________

C a v i ng Secs R e p o rt

The last year has seen quite a few changes in the club and in caving generally. This has been the first full year of the new Belfry, which has had some bearing on the caving activity. Our fine new building provides us with all the amenities we need and I am sure that the Belfry showers encourage everyone somewhat, as everyone knows that they can clean up afterwards.

Caving activity has been fairly constant with approximately a hundred trips into Cuthbert’s – the majority of these being working trips ranging through digging, surveying and water tracing. The remainder were general interest trips and included about twenty five tourist trips by visiting clubs. On looking through the caving log, I see that there were about two hundred trips during the year October 1970 to September

….by Tim Large Hon. Caving Sec. 1971. Nearly every popular cave on Mendip was visited by members, with Swildons being the most popular as usual. All the other major caving areas in Britain were visited, all by members arranging their own trips.

During the summer, some members enjoyed the water washed atmosphere of the Irish caves, and from all accounts, it was a great holiday.

Exploration has taken up a good slice of the activity, with members digging at Hunters Hole; Cuthbert’s; Masebury; Second Tier; Emborough and various other sites that might yield results in the future. Our C.D.G. members have also been involved in exploration work in Wookey Hole and various Welsh caves.

With everyone being mechanised these days, there seems to be a lack of interest in club trips to other caving districts, although club trips on Mendip have been well attended. One major topic has been the removal; of some unnecessary items of fixed tackle from Cuthbert’s, and the consequent literary onslaught.

A rescue practice was held in Cuthbert’s during November 1070. The route used was Stal Pitch up the streamway to the top of Pulpit. All went very well and gave several newer members a chance to take part in rescue procedures for the first time.

All in all, the club has had a year of reasonable activity, and I am sure that once we settle down in the new Belfry and the atmosphere develops into one suitable for a caving hut and not a country cottage, we shall see more caving activity in future years. _______________________________________________________________________________________

CAVING MEETS

OCTOBER 17TH.

LAMB LEER. 2 pm at the belfry.

NOVEMBER 7TH .

CUTHBERT’S PHOTOGRAPHIC TRIP. 11am at the Belfry.

NOVEMBER 21ST.

62 CUTHBERT’S LEADERS MEETING. 2 pm at the Belfry.

DECEMBER 4TH

RESCUE PRACTICE. 11 am at the Belfry.

For all details of caving meets etc., contact TIM LARGE at 39 Seymour Avenue, Bishopston, Bristol 7.

LACAVE AND PADIRAC

Doing show caves while abroad is perhaps the easy way of combining a little caving activity within a normal holiday. It has the great advantage of getting you underground without having to lug great quantities of gear all over the place. Even with a car, this can be a problem, particularly when you also want to lug things like collapsible dinghies and outboard motors all over the place as well.

The plan was top spend a couple of days on the way back from Spain in the Dordogne area of France, and we decided to make our base at Souillac. …..Alfie The original idea was to combine visits to showcaves with getting there by by boat on the Dordogne, but after reading the fearsome warnings about what was likely to happen to small boats on the river when the dams higher up were allowed to release water, we decided it might be rather embarrassing to be swept halfway across France on what was supposed to be a two mile journey!

As an aside to the subject of showcaves, it might be worth while for the B.E.C. to start compiling its own list of recommended hotels abroad. If anybody wants a start, I have stayed in three hotels in Soillac at various times, and they go like this. Ambassador (on the main road in middle of the town) medium price, friendly service, fantastically good food, thoroughly recommended. Auberge de Puitys In a small square on the south side of the main road) cheap, rooms reasonable, food reasonable. Good for a cheap single night stop. La Truffiere (on the left side of the main road about six miles before getting to Soillac itself) very expensive, not worth it, not recommended.

Setting off from the Ambassador, we made our way towards the Grotte de Lacave, a few miles from Soillac. The roadside soon becomes plastered with signs saying what a splendid cave this is, and you finish up in the village of Lacave, go into the entrance building, buy your tickets and make your way to the cave mouth where a train awaits. This thing sets off along an artificial passage which goes fairly steeply upwards into the hillside. Someone has obviously calculated just how many people the little engine will pull, because it gets slower and slower as it goes upwards, until it almost stops, but eventually arrives at the station. From there, short passages and flights of steps lead upwards into the cave itself.

The showcave consists of a fairly long upper dry series, long ago abandoned by the stream. Formations are plentiful, but not individually spectacular, and nearly all of dead stal. Every trick of lighting has been used to wring the utmost effect out of the formations, including the use of ultra-violet lighting (which the French call lumiere noir) and which does not work very well on dead stal. In places, the series has been extensively filled with mud, and they have evolved a very clever type of cement which looks exactly like the mud fill.. This is used to make artificial pools on the floor, in which most of the better formations are reflected. One is not allowed to take photographs, but these can be bought commercially on leaving the cave. They are surprisingly good. There is a pre-recorded commentary which gets switched on at various points in the cave, but my French was not good enough to follow it all, although I managed to get the gist of most of it. It is just about worth a visit if you happen to be in the area and have time to spare.

The Gouffre de Padirac is a little further from Souillac, and much more interesting than Lacave. You down from the entrance building in a lift which takes you about fifty feet below the surface, then you break into the side of the Gouffre and go down the rest of the way in a lift which runs through open steel, girder work to the bottom. Comparisons are not easy to make, but the Gouffre from the bottom seems not quite as deep as G.G. but about the same general proportions.

From there, you go down to the cave proper. It is an active cave with a decent stream. The long horizontal passage from the bottom of the Gouffre has been artificially flooded to a higher level than nature intended, so you can be punted along by typical French punt-drivers, who seem quite unruffled as they void obstructions with other punts going in the opposite way, or steer you straight into an overhanging stal, with a cry of “Gardez la tete!” Once at the other end of this passage, the trip consists mainly of a tour round the Salle de Dome – a chamber of impressive dimensions. The formations are live and good. It seems a pity that the trip has to end with you looking down a streamway of vast proportions along which you may not go. On the way back, your photograph will be taken, and you may have a print for a large fee. A wastepaper basket is thoughtfully provided for you to chuck the card entitling you to this service.

One thing which is impresses us was that visitors are expected to get quite wet from some of the places where heavy drip occurs. The French don’t seem to mind at all! Again, no photographs are allowed, and the official set is rather disappointing. Even so, it is an interesting place to see.

63 We meant to do Les Eyzies, and a few others while we were there, but somehow we never got around to it, perhaps the next time. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ A reminder. Annual subscriptions are due on the 31st of January each year. Any member who has not paid by the 30th of April following can find himself no longer a member of the club. The committee arte inclined to be much stricter about these rules than they have been in the past. Constant reminders like this one will appear on odd corners of the B.B. Start thinking about your 1972 subscriptions NOW.

NOTICES

Members are requested not to drive at speed along the track or into the car park. Excessive speed churns up the surface and gives the Belfry Engineer a lot of work in putting it back again.

The ash tree by the pool beside the car park was planted there to take some of the bareness away from the site – not as a clothes prop. Please do not use it to hang old clothes on.

Has anyone a WHEELBARROW they don’t want? The Belfry Engineer has had his swiped and wants another one. Can Anyone help? _______________________________________________________________________________________ MONTHLY CROSSWORD – Number 15.

Across: 1

2

3

4

5

1. Oriental Mendip Lake? (9) 4. Artificial Aid. (5) 6. Well Mendip underground place to old trog.

(3,6) 7. Realistic term for line-shooters. (5) 8. Useful in Yorkshire with or without first letter.

(9) Down:

6

1. Should describe club members. (9) 2. Cuthbert’s pitch. (9) 3. Place with more pitches (5,4) 4. Quiet confused deal for footwork? (5) 5. Musical survey data. (5)

7

8

Solution To Last Month’s Crossword A R

F A

E T

R

H

E

T

M T L

A

C H

O

O

A

D

A

Z

T

E

E C D

E

E F

G

O

P

L R

L

E

E O

S U

E E

S

E

E

E S

A

L L

R A

O

W L

64 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Where you satisfied with the A.G.M. and dinner? What did you think of the food? Did you miss not having any entertainment? Have you got any comments? Suggestions? Grouses? WHY NOT WRITE TO THE B.B.?