Marking the 1 year anniversary of our first trip to snowdonia's extensive slate mine explore
So yesterday we returned to Moel Fferna. Myself and @stefglazby met 4 friends who had camped the night before.
We set off at 8am and arrived at the designated parking spot on a beaten track at around 11am. The trusty Ford Focus made it down the green lanes without too many hiccups and once parked we geared up and set off on the 3 mile difficult terrain hike to the mine shaft location deep in the hills.
Upon arriving at the only shaft and access point, Will set about rigging up a double rope and pulley system to enable us to abseil in and prussik back up later on. The hole was around 40ft deep and the sides full of loose rocks and boulders, not the safest and certainly one the lesser visited mine workings due to the difficult location.
Once inside we set about on the upper levels gradually making our way back down to lower levels where we revisited the bridge of doom before making our return back up the inclines and spoil piles to level 5 which our exit shaft was on.
The prussik method up the ropes was tiring and we let the heaviest and least experienced up first as we could pull the other end of the rope to assist the ascent of whoever was clipped into the harness. 7 of us in and out all safe and sound!
We set back off up the hill through knee deep heather bushes, energy draining at an alarming rate.
Once in the path we made good pace on the 3 mile return journey, much of the snow having melted from the morning and the sun starting set over the Welsh valleys.
It's safe to say I won't be returning to this mine again. It's 100% complete and there is nothing in me wanting to go through that effort to see something I've already seen!
I’m so glad you take pictures as you wouldn’t find me going myself. Although I find the whole thing very interesting so please keep up the posts on your adventures.
Might be a few weeks until my next one, trip to A&E on the cards, hurt my hip trudging through the heather bushes, can barely walk today :( worth it but wow im in pain!
How was yoir trip??
Intense and today I can't move due to a hip injury picked up on the walk back...
Sorry.
Take care of yourself
I'll be back to good health in no time, thank you for your concern :)
Fascinating and I'm interested to see that you don't make trips back if you've explored one site completely.
There are mines local which we revisit regularly, mainly when we break somebody new in with an easy one. But if we're going to travel 2 to 3 hours to Wales then we like to try and complete the whole mine system then once done, find the next location, especially if its difficult to access like this one. I have the key to the largest slate mine known in europe, which also holds the go-below adventure, we are yet to explore every part due to its size so that will be the next visit if not the next couple!