by Phil Jayne
"AN UNDERTAKING SYMBOLIC OF MAN’S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE FORCES OF REALITY"
6th November 1994
Following yet another failed attempt to break into the Chartist System. Members of Brynmawr Caving Club moved across the moor West about 180m to Crescent cave, a cave with a good stream flowing as a waterfall into the entrance. This stream had given a positive dye trace to the substantial Siôn Sieffre spring , as part of the Welsh Water Authority South East Wales groundwater study in 1980. The cave had been dug on a least two previous occasions in the previous 30 years but as yet no one had broken through the glacial clay and boulder in-fill to rejoin the stream at a lower level.
The entrance had collapsed since an initial foray and a substantial boulder had blocked the entrance, sufficient numbers were required to remove this boulder and a little mechanical advantage was required. Once removed a decision was made to dig in the southernmost corner of the entrance, thus began the Quest, at this time the chamber was 3M wide and 4M long with a sloping roof some 2M high at the southern most end, the dimensions of this chamber were to change on a weekly basis over the next 5 months, by this time we had excavated only 3m down, however this task had been completed on at least six occasions! it was getting a little soul destroying moving the same boulders every week, following a little chemical advantage this problem was eliminated.
It had been a long cold winter digging underneath the torrent of water and progress over the winter months was restricted to dry weather. some form of scaffold was required to support the structure that remained but with numbers down to only 3 or 4 carrying scaffold a mile up the mountain was not going to be a pleasant task. So with the removal of the central heating system from a former T.A. Drill Hall consisting of 8m lengths of 10cm diameter steel pipe ( it was free! ) The task of shoring began, the steel pipe was moved in stages to Ebbw Vale after long evenings spent wearing down disc cutter blades! All we had to do now was get it to the cave
30th May 1995
Somebody volunteered the use of a land rover, so in late may a reconnaissance expedition by mountain bike set off to brake the trail! following the delivery of the scaffold to its final resting place, work could now begin in earnest and with some small margin of safety. Most of the balance of 1995 was spent continually digging out the bottom of the pot, though at a depth of only 4m little progress had been made. During the winter the stream had cut down further back towards the entrance and with a little encouragement this made digging at the front end a lot more comfortable. At the end of the year we had encountered a very strong draft and in freezing conditions the draft had lowered the temperature in the cave some 10m from the surface sufficient to freeze any remaining water! it became so cold in the cave that with the draft it was impossible to work at the face for more than ten minutes.
28th January 1996
After several trips in Arctic conditions and which would have not been possible without the use of a G.P.S. we had a small visible connection to a chamber leading off from the bottom of the pot. The draft sucking into this pot was unbelievable. After a short and frantic digging session entry was gained and the three of us sat gibbering away in a small mud floored chamber. As reality dawned, we were sat to the left of a boulder filled descending rift which was a continuation of the original pot, the chamber was nothing more than a mud and boulder cavity but we still had draft and now had another chamber to fill with boulders! after a well earned brew we began digging in the floor and after several trips had reached a well worn and fluted limestone wall after four further months we gradually worked our way down through open boulders and a 5m descent was made which required vertical boulder stacking around the walls. Jackstraw pot was a loose association of boulders that was shored with some trepidation and involved a lot patients on the part of Chris who’s turns at the front always lasted substantially longer than the sub one minute foray’s of both Phil Coles and myself, it was amazing how eager some of us were to climb all the way back to the surface to fetch yet another pole just to get as far away from the dig as possible?
31st April 1996
After almost two years and only 20m of progress we were faced with a black hole that repaid its visitors with a booming, echoing clatter when fed with boulders, there is, I think, nothing more satisfying on earth to those who dig than this sound, which is why we seem to spend hours at the head of a pitch like this chucking boulder after boulder down in child like glee.
We had at this stage reconstructed an inverted electricity pylon underground, had established an enviable supply of scaffolding and timber, had established an under ground workshop where scaffolding poles could be cut with amazing precision but we didn’t have a F****** ladder!
The following week saw the return of the 3 mad men with 8,5 foot scaffolding poles 12, 4 foot planks 16 scaffolding clamps 4, 20lb stemples, 100ft of ladder 50m rope, bolting kit, personal kit, tools, and a camera not to forget the brew kit and 2ltrs of water. Your task should you wish to accept it, is to get this lot up to the cave and down to the head of the pitch, after dividing the kit equally?
We managed 50ft of progress before some bright spark suggested we should adopt a little bit of intelligence and join all the scaffolding poles together to make a stretcher on which to pile all the tackle sacks and the planks. with unanimous agreement it was done. unfortunately it was impossible for more than two people to get a grip. As a result as the person who’s brain wave this was, I was given 5 tackle sacks and the stemples and told to head for the cave followed by Chris and Phil carrying the stretcher some 100m behind, whilst greatly amused amongst ourselves at our over excited gathering of kit for the breakthrough and the suffering we had put upon our selves, we were not as amused as the gathering of walkers outside Chartist who appeared to be waiting for the start of the shoot for the 1997 Berghaus catalogue. with so much weight around my neck I could not raise my head in greeting and dared not stop, I heard muffled whispers of " its the S.A.S they do their training up here!" at closer proximity it was obvious to them that this was not the case and curiosity got the better of them and they walked towards me at the same time as I turned 90 degrees towards the cave this caused some concern and they stopped at which time my legs gave way and I started chucking kit at the floor and swearing, sensing I was in need of assistance and after I had politely acknowledged there existence, they helped me the last 40m to the cave, with impeccable timing one of them indicated that I was totally mad! at which point I turned and pointed to Chris and Phil just as they came into view, " Not as mad as those two!" looking like stretcher bearers coming to collect Goliath from another defeat they slowly approached, at which point the Berghaus fashion parade disappeared in a flash of lurid colours.
After recovering on the surface for some time we slowly descended with all the kit, secured the pitch head and rigged the pitch. This was it real cave we were met by a 12m high rift some 5m to a boulder choke downdip and 3m to a narrow mud filed rift which trended straight back to Chartist. the initial euphoria was truncated by bombardment from Phil Coles who dislodged a boulder on his descent which caught the ladder on the way down and split his lip covering his face in blood, the cave was reminding us again who was in control and just to rub salt into Phil’s wounds the choke which we had hoped we had bypassed was right in our path looking even more unstable and placing its diggers in an even more exposed position.
14th September 1996
a series of attempts were made along the rift and through the choke with again many failed attempts to keep the way on open thwarted by collapse after collapse but after much perseverance the choke was passed on the 14th September, after a short crawl we were elated to be stood in a rift joined by two very big avens with two or three leads to follow, leaving on a high note, with the best prospect of a real breakthrough yet we returned the following week deciding to dig along the continuing rift and climb the furthest aven of the two. after two or three weeks of effort in this direction we were again a little despondent, there was no obvious way on and not even a boulder choke to dig. After leaving the breakthrough area the crawl through the choke had collapsed and considerable effort had to be made to secure this crawl and regain access.
3rd October 1996
Once the crawl had been secured we returned and started to look at a narrow descending rift that was actually at the base of a boulder choked third aven parallel to the main rift. Chris had descended this tight rift on the breakthrough trip but had reported that the small chamber below was very unstable and had a boulder covered floor, as there were better leads on the day this small find was overlooked but it was now our only lead. After hanging a ladder down the tight rift. (getting down is easy, watching someone thrutch up it is exceptionally entertaining.) We applied our usually commitment to this chamber and the now obligatory quantity of steel and wood. After two or three good sessions we found ourselves at what appeared to be the head of another pitch!
5th January 1997
Following the ceremonial chucking of boulders through a small hole into darkness, euphoria returned digging fever set in and after securing the pitch head the second pitch was passed. this pitch again dropped into an aven through a side wall with a boulder slope floor leading to the head of yet another pitch! Again out of ladder a return would have to be made but an open lead was left, this one was the Big One the obligatory boulder dropping ceremony lasted half an hour whilst Chis and Phil speculated whether one ladder was enough. Returning the following week with only one ladder and hoping the Cave would not see this as a major threat. the pitch was bolted and rigged and the ladder dropped into the blackness Chris the unanimously appointed ladder tester descended first with exclamations of gargantuan proportions brought on by bad light maintenance, abruptly cut short by the end of the ladder! 20 feet short and freehanging was the cry! after the whoops of joy the harsh Knife of reality cut in. We needed another ladder the ladder hanging on the pitch above us was needed! We did have however 4 rungs of a metal link ladder that were left over from the ladder on the first pitch, this pitch was then re-rigged, jumping through space onto the ladder now rigged on the opposite wall wasn’t too bad after all!
The two wire ladders were joined and down we went, this was a real pitch freehanging and out of a hole in the roof.
Two hours later we returned having found a few tens of metres of walking passage, more avens and a few formations. This was reward enough for the effort expended, after several broken fingers, head wounds, fractured elbows, frost bite, momentary lapses of reason and sanity, we had beaten the Cave!
The breakthrough took place on the 2nd of March this year and the following week we openly invited the entire club, this turned out to be quite an epic club trip with more than twenty people underground, however as the advance party hit the business end of the cave news came forward that we were all entombed, that the choke had collapsed at the base of the first pitch Chris was naturally sent back to investigate as the rest of the advance party played who can climb furthest up the aven with only one ladder. Took a few photographs and drank cups of tea. Phil and I weren’t so worried we been worried lots of times before, but a few first timers were clearly in shock at the thought of their entrapped state.
With little achieved and after 8 hours underground there seemed to be a lot of fuss about nothing. The entrapped had dug themselves, or was it the rest of us out and we all left the Cave. Some I believe vowing never to return. The following weeks trip always reminds me of the Genesis album entitled "Then There Were Three"!!!
The Quest continues albeit with little further success at present and a survey is currently in completion.