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Cwmorthin Mine (14 March 2025) 17 Mar 2025 19:27 #21851
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- dchadwick
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The North Wales weekend started early with a trip on Friday to look around Cwmorthin mine.
Paul had collected a key on his way to the LCCC where we were staying for the weekend.
Having all assembled by about 13:00 we set off up the hill for the mine.
I had a colour coded survey which was a great help keeping track of where we were.
After a long faff getting the gate open (the apparently symmetrical key only works one way round) and a brief faff just inside the entrance we set off down the incline to the series of zip wires.
We went along "B Floor" using three zip wires and a couple of traverses to some steps down to "C Floor" and then more steps to "D Floor". From here we used the long zip wire to the "diving board".
We then did the "Bridge of Death" and the "Corkscrew Traverse" and came to the traverse to the "Electrum Ladder" climb.
This was set up for a pull through abseil, but there was no rope. Having got onto the sleeper platform, I asked Ellie what she thought about jumping down (8m). She did not seem keen and was thinking about the route out when I got a rope out of my bag and setup a pull through abseil.
Once we were all safely at the bottom we headed off to find some artefacts: Door (tick), Peleton Wheel (fail), Hole (tick), Shed (tick), Caban (tick), Stairs (tick), Winch (tick), another Caban (tick), McDonalds (shut down).
The McDonalds was really an air compressor. We headed up behind this hoping to find what looked like steps up to "C Floor", we found a dam and a canal with bars across it.
We headed back down to the air compressor and over to the "Rusted Stitch Drill". Lukas the pointed out that the "stairs" on the way to "C Floor" were not shown in the same way as other stairs, so the way we had gone was probably right.
He was correct and we then went up some real stairs to "B Floor" with the hope of following that back to the entrance. We had not gone far when we came to a chamber where the floor was missing (or at least 10m lower than was useful).
We back tracked and went up to "A Floor" and followed that through to "Tagnuts Terror" and round to the entrance.
Time: About 3 hours.
Team: Paul, Fran, Lukas, Ellie & Dave.
Paul had collected a key on his way to the LCCC where we were staying for the weekend.
Having all assembled by about 13:00 we set off up the hill for the mine.
I had a colour coded survey which was a great help keeping track of where we were.
After a long faff getting the gate open (the apparently symmetrical key only works one way round) and a brief faff just inside the entrance we set off down the incline to the series of zip wires.
We went along "B Floor" using three zip wires and a couple of traverses to some steps down to "C Floor" and then more steps to "D Floor". From here we used the long zip wire to the "diving board".
We then did the "Bridge of Death" and the "Corkscrew Traverse" and came to the traverse to the "Electrum Ladder" climb.
This was set up for a pull through abseil, but there was no rope. Having got onto the sleeper platform, I asked Ellie what she thought about jumping down (8m). She did not seem keen and was thinking about the route out when I got a rope out of my bag and setup a pull through abseil.
Once we were all safely at the bottom we headed off to find some artefacts: Door (tick), Peleton Wheel (fail), Hole (tick), Shed (tick), Caban (tick), Stairs (tick), Winch (tick), another Caban (tick), McDonalds (shut down).
The McDonalds was really an air compressor. We headed up behind this hoping to find what looked like steps up to "C Floor", we found a dam and a canal with bars across it.
We headed back down to the air compressor and over to the "Rusted Stitch Drill". Lukas the pointed out that the "stairs" on the way to "C Floor" were not shown in the same way as other stairs, so the way we had gone was probably right.
He was correct and we then went up some real stairs to "B Floor" with the hope of following that back to the entrance. We had not gone far when we came to a chamber where the floor was missing (or at least 10m lower than was useful).
We back tracked and went up to "A Floor" and followed that through to "Tagnuts Terror" and round to the entrance.
Time: About 3 hours.
Team: Paul, Fran, Lukas, Ellie & Dave.
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