Dan-yr-Ogof Far North

Dan-yr-Ogof - An epic adventure to The Far North

Dan-yr-Ogof has been a fairly regular adventure for YCC members, courtesy of our own Warden (Gary) and other wardens who are friends of the club. However, all trips so far have focused on the round trip. There have been a few excursions off the round trip including Hangar North, Mazeways, and The Rising, all of which have added to the fun and generated some excellent photos. However, The Far North (beyond The Rising) has always evaded us for one reason or another.

The extremely dry spring of this year seemed to offer the perfect opportunity, but as our end-of-May bank holiday at Whitewalls approached, the weather started to deteriorate, with rain forecast. Nonetheless, come the Friday night, after much studying of the forecasts (which were now greatly improved) and the Craig-y-Nos water level (which remained at a record low of 0.3m), we decided that the small amounts of rain forecast posed absolutely no concern.

After an early start, we were at Dan-yr-Ogof for 9:30am, just before opening. A prompt 10am entry into the cave saw Gary, Toby and Lumens and I make quick progress though the lakes, with the usually deepest bit under the arch barely reaching belly-height. We were all in 3mm wetsuits with a thin thermal underneath plus an oversuit, and were fairly comfortable throughout the trip (albeit a little warm in The Long Crawl).

Fate was with us as a pile of rocks in Gerald Platten Hall indicated that there were ample floatation aids at the Cloud Chamber end of the Green Canal, meaning we didn't have to complete the majority of the round trip just to get up to The Rising (we had no intention of swimming). The Green Canal is now well-furnished with a selection of life-jackets and rubber rings / inner tubes, and a pump at each side to allow them to be topped up. Sitting inside one of the larger rings ensures a wetting is limited to your arse. We were keen to avoid a full-body wetting if possible, to postpone the onset of cold, although given the rapid pace of movement there seemed little chance of that!

At The Rising we were greeted with the beautifully constructed stainless steel ladder and belay rope, which I have admired so many times before, but had yet to ascend. Our research had informed us that all pitches (two up, two down) were rigged with in-situ rope, although we'd brought a 30m rope and a small selection of stuff nonetheless. After donning our SRT kits, we were quickly up the ladder. A passage leads away from the top to soon reach the second up-pitch which was rigged. A moderate length easy crawl eventually reached the first down pitch, which starts as a 3m drop and then pendulum forward to the second section of the drop. A short distance on, the final pitch was reached, which is a spectacular 20m drop back into the large river passage just upstream of the sump. This was also rigged and in good condition, and the rope was pulled up (to avoid anyone who breaks into Dan-yr-Ogof from any of the ongoing digs near the upstream chokes, from being able to access the Show Cave). All tackle was in good condition, so only SRT kits needed.

There were no navigational issues through this area. Don't be tempted to try to save space by sharing SRT kits (which we considered) - it would be a massive faff! 

Overall, this SRT-section was really interesting, took about 45 minutes, and creates a very clear divide between the classic round trip part of the cave - and the much more remote-feeling Far North. The in-situ ropes are in good condition, although they are fairly chunky and stiff. My trusty rack only needed three bars!

The regained river commences as excellent, large, lofty streamway, and is followed upstream for quite some distance - The Great North Road. On several occasions large boulder blockages forced a brief ascent, however a very quick return to stream level followed (as continuing up the boulders would lead to a non-climbable drop back down). Eventually, after passing several smaller chambers (each of which we mistakenly thought were Pinnacle Chamber), the real Pinnacle Chamber is reached, which is a much more extensive boulder chamber where the way-on is up the boulders following a fairly well-trodden path. 

Once you are several metres up onto the boulders, the very obvious pinnacle (a 3m high pointy boulder) that gave the chamber its name is seen in the distance.

We spent about 30 minutes being very confused because initially, we attempted to navigate a route underneath Pinnacle Chamber, convinced by the survey that the way on into The Meanders, was at water level (it is, but not yet). However, the way on is actually over the boulders, navigating across the top of the chamber, past the pinnacle rock itself. At the end of the chamber the way ahead closes down, but a well-polished route leads down through blocks on the left back to the stream, into the start of The Meanders.

The Meanders are a fine, sweeping section of river passage (very recognisable). After a short distance, a waterfall crashes in on the right, and about 30m after that, also on the right, is an easily-missed climb up on the right into the large passage of The Mostest. We know this is easily missed, because we did miss it, and carried on for some distance in more fine river passage before realising that something wasn't quite right and we had to back-track.

The Mostest is a fabulous passage, with a stunning river of honey calcite, with crystals and an abundance of flowstone on the walls. The taping here has been done really very nicely and provides a good route from which you can admire the formations without coming close or risking damage.

At the end of The Mostest, tucked away on the left, is North Aven, marked by a chunky hessian rope for the initial 5m easy climb. If you miss this, you will end up at a massive T-junction with a large drop left and a large passage heading right. At the top of the initial 5m climb is the start of a 12m ascent up a rift passage. There is an in-situ SRT rope here which could be prussicked, however it does rub quite badly in several places, so we just hand-jammered it as a backup and free-climbed as much as possible to avoid reliance on the rope, which wasn't too difficult. This was a really entertaining climb and provided some nice variation after such an abundance of river passage and formations.

From the top, the red mud that characterises higher levels of South Wales caves appeared, and the way on was following the obvious route up and down boulders. After about 5 minutes, we located the stream and a short traverse over a waist-deep pool entered the large river passage at The Starting Gate, where the two branches of The Far North lead off. 

We opted for the Left Hand Series (as the Right Hand Series sounded nasty). This did not disappoint, and the passage grew progressively larger, with long sections of easy walking in square-cut tunnels. At the top of one boulder slope, where the main passage turned left, the Gritstone Aven provided some fascination, peering up for an extrodinarily long way, wondering how close to the surface that might actually go!

The Grand Hall then followed, a majestic spot, followed by a final few minutes of boulder hopping up and down to reach the Far North Choke, where we couldn't help but wonder what might actually lie beyond the choke. A quick group shot here was mandatory!

Total trip time to reach the Far North Choke (via Green Canal) including a lunch stop and a few navigational errors was 5hr since entering the show-cave.

The outward journey was significantly faster and only took only 3.5 hours. This was mainly thanks to no navigational faff and the usual burst of 'outbound energy' that all caving teams seem to enjoy. Therefore, the total time underground was 8.5 hours (via Cloud Chamber/Green Canal there and back) including a lunch stop, a few navigational issues and quick photos. We were a fairly speedy team of four SRT-experienced boulder-hoppers, so larger or more leisurely teams may wish to allow 9-10 hours.

This was a stunning trip, with huge variety, a proper sense of adventure, some stunning large passages, and great formations. I can't believe it took us so long to get round to doing this!