Croesor to Rhosydd through trip (CRTT) nov 2012

[Danny Sutton]

Visited with loads of people, theres a groupe shot!

we had all aranged to meet at the cafe at Tan-y-Grisiau at 9.30 am, Vikki had
kindly agreed to pick me up from abergele and said it would take an hour to get to
the cafe from here so i would need to be there for 8.30.

so my day started at 6am, abergele in a good hour and 20 mins from my house, this
gave me an hour to get my car packed and get ready and as i'm allways late, i was
making a special effort to be on time.

fastfarward to 8.30, i'm at abergele, i have no memory about how i got there, must
of been asleep most of the way, but it must of been uneventfull as i couldnt see
any dents or scrapes on the car, Vikki turns up, i throw my crap in her car and
off we go, I soon woke up, been thrown around the  inside of her car like a
ragdoll, honestly, she could give Ken Block a run for his money.. 9am, we were
there, she had managed abergele to Tan-y-Grisiau in about half an hour, we were
the last there.

we entered the cafe where i had to nip to the gents to change my undercrackers, we
then ordered some food and as you would expect we ate it, The plan from here on
was to drive a million miles to somewhere i will never be able to find again,
leave the cars there and all jump in the 4x4 pickup and drive up to the mine.

we did this and it was an interesting drive up, i can say, those toyota pick-up
things dont have a lot of ground clearence, if anyone needs a diff, sump, tow bar
or floor pan, i'm guessing we left all these bits behind, free to anyone who wants
to go collect them.

once at the top, we got kitted up and entered the mine, for those who dont know
the trip, it's a easy climb up to the top of the first pitch, then you have 2
decents, a zip wire crossing, a wobbly bridge, 3 BOD's which have to be walked,
then traversed and the 3rd, well i'm not sure what you would call it, but it
rigged really badly with bits of wire and various ropes, you just cross it the
best you can. Then you have a short decent into a boat for a river crossing, a
short climb back out of the boat up to a ledge, then a long walk up and down
various levels to find your way out.

The trip went without problem, the ropes on the first and second pitch are worn
out and not safe to use, but we had taken a rope with us, so we didn't have any
problems. Vikki could do with growing a bit as she struggled to reach the ropes on
the 3rd BOD crossing, and my lamp battery went flat 60m from the exit, but i could
see daylight, so not a problem.

all out safe and well, then the walk back to the 4x4, all i can say is LOL, doug
sank to his knees in mud, while trying to avoid it, so did i, but vikki, we
allmost lost her, she was in to her waste, allmost vanished, we ran to her rescue,
but struggled to pull her out as we were all laughing so much.

we got back to the 4x4, loaded it up and drove back down to the cars.

the things i have learnt today.
1 - it takes 3 UCET members to open a gate.
2 - You can fit a minimum of 9 people and their kit in a toyota pickup.
3 - short cows tails are no good to anyone
4 - never criticize a womans driving, especially if they are driving the car you are sat in.

[Tim Watts]

just been viewing on facebook - love the sideways bridge shots :-)

[mike leahy]

cracking trip report and good photo's dan. glad all went well. hope vikki did'nt wear my pulley out

[Tim Watts]

Murf used my pully didn't he?

[Danny Sutton]

mick, doug, vikki and myself all had pullys, the big zip wire has a big insitue pully on it, the last bridge crossing, we used 2 pullies to reduce the risk of the less experanced people dropping it in the water.

not sure who's were used, but they were all recovered and in good order

[Ian A]

Awesome photos and awesome report - thanks Dan