North Henblas Shaft - 2/5/2013

[Tony Salusbury]

Weather: Hot and Sunny

Visited with: Mike L, Dylan, Ian, Tony Adams, Tom, Guy, Boydy, Amy & Myself

After myself and Amy did a rather small 9m pitch last Sunday at Moel Fferna it was time to sink our teeth into some 'proper' SRT, and what better way than the daunting 500ft shaft of North Henblas.

We arrived and kitted up and made the small walk to the entrance shaft. Ian flicked on the lights, and after a little scooch across a short wooden beam and down a small ladder we landed on the top platform and the behemoth of the shaft was below us, all 500ft of it. We could barely see the bottom, as we looked below at the next 2 platforms.

Guy descended first and as the 'rope clear' was heard we all followed suit one by one as each section of rope was clear. This was certainly nothing like the Leisure Centre's pitiful 3m balcony, what lay below us was several platforms and rebelays. The first 3 sections were fairly short sections of rope but as we then left the platformed areas the full scale of the shaft opened up. It didn't take long before I started to get cramp in my left hand whilst pressing the level on the descender, and had to rest every now and then to regain feeling in it. Everyone navigated the rebelays with very little fuss, and soon enough we were all on the 330ft level landing platform. Kits were then taken off and we then went off to explore the mine.

Shortly after the landing platform we came across some lovely formations on the walls, ceiling and floor at the first junction. We proceeded east along some back breaking tunnels to the next junction were we then headed South, looking at the very nice solidified calcite floor. We arrived at Dolphin shaft with water flowing in from above, and many old items such as pots and shoes littering the area at the bottom of the shaft. We headed back to the junction and then headed North towards the dig.

Along the way we saw the thin layers of calcite floor that sadly has had to be broken to ge access beyond. After more back breaking crouching down we arrived at the first dig, we crawled through and into the next passage. Passing the old wooden launders on the left hand side we soon arrived at the current dig, and spent a while here whilst a bit of work was carried out, then proceeded back to Pepe's shaft to make the long journey back up to the surface.

We kitted back up and one by one took to the first section of rope. Strangely the light at the top of the shaft didn't look too far away but looks can be very deceiving. Up and up we went, and the tiring journey seemed never ending. A couple of rebelays had extremely short loops which made transferring the chest jammers pretty tricky, but no-one encountered any problems.

As Amy reached the top platform (under the watchful eye of Mike on the safety rope next to her), Guy shortly followed and it was finished. We'd done the North Henblas Shaft and felt pretty chuffed, and also pretty knackered  :blush:

We walked to the cars, but Amy took longer getting over the gate than she did to get up the shaft due to a spider on the gate.  :lol:

A quick change and it was back to the pub for a very definately well deserved pint, where Robin was there waiting after his SRT'ing in his second home (Spar Mine)  

Many thanks to Mike for looking out for Amy.  

I've got a few vids so I'll put something together and post it in the next few days.

Now, time for bed and I await the all over aching in the morning  :dry:

[Tony Salusbury]

If this is ok to put in the non members trip reports can a mod please move it, and delete this post.

[Ian A]

Great report (always is)  B)

[Tony Salusbury]

Here's the vid.

[video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]Jk6PMBTcyEI[/video]