trip report – Cwm Dyli

A good trip that has plenty of interesting features. 

When we arrived the car park was empty and the roads were quiet. We geared up and began the approach quickly, Access to the public land is through the metal gate close to the entrance of the car park. following the spur down you will eventually reach the track heading to the water works and a gated bridge. We turned right and crossed the river at the obvious point. We joined the footpath immediately after then headed up hill through the old sheep pens, keeping to the left towards the river not long after we found a rough track that leads to the water level marker and get out point.

The next leg of the walk was very steep and zig zagged to the right side of the spur. When we eventually reached the top it was an easy walk to the wall which marks the get in point.

To get in to the canyon you will need to cross the wall, luckily there is a stile located 50m along the wall, use this and carefully down climb into the river. 

The first section of the canyon is relatively flat, with 2 slides and some down climbing, Then you will reach the first drop, unfortunately this canyon has suffered from poor bolt placements through out with only a few exceptions and would benefit from future development to reduce the potential, excessive rope abrasion due to the bolt locations. 

The first drop is currently protected by a single glue in p bolt, the second seems to far apart to use (possibly an overly cautious hand line) until this section has the old anchors removed and new ones placed in a more advantageous position this drop is best down climbed true left of the canyon. If you do choose to abseil be aware this drop has a high risk of entrapment. Once in the pool at the bottom no bolts are present and instead you will need to climb out of the pool TL to find the next station which gives you a wet and dry abseil option. after this abseil you may see the old anchors placed in the rock, luckily new(ish) SS expansion bolts have been placed below the tree on the other side of the canyon. Use these to protect the drop, note the landing zone is mostly dry. 

Next is the Rap and slide or just rap, anchors are obvious TR. Drop after is also simple with a nice free hanging section half way down and after that you have a safety line leading to a hidden double bolted anchor with a wet and dry abseil option available. 

The canyon section ends after this abseil and you have a few slippery down climbs which we decided to ghost to save time, Walking back only taken 20 minuets. Overall a good little trip!