Callout Daren Cilau 25 Feb 2012.

Wardens were contacted by Dyfed Powys police at 22.25. A party of 3 students from Exeter University were overdue from their trip. Other EU members at Whitewalls were spoken to and it was established that the overdue party went in at 10.30 and planned a trip to the Time Machine and possibly exit Ogof Cnwc by 21.00. None had done the trip before and they had no survey. Aberystwyth University had done a Time Machine trip that day but had not seen The Exeter party.

At 22.15 cavers had entered Ogof Cnwc to do a through trip search and to search the left hand series of Busman’s. All local wardens were put on standby while the South Wales Caving Club was checked to establish who was there and available. As it was a committee weekend the club was pretty full and all who were sober were asked to stay that way until we knew if it would be a rescue or not. Initial parties were dispatched from Penwyllt with a further 10 team members remaining on Standby. 13 Members living locally were also placed on standby. At 23.55 it was reported that searchers had returned from Busman’s without contacting the lost party .

All of the team dispatched from Penwyllt were on site by 01.10 High band comms having been established at both entrances manned by other Exeter Uni students. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that the missing party had exited via Ogof Cnwc.

The party had failed to find the Time Machine and decided to go for Prices exit. From Busman’s they failed to find the connection although one had reached the Sump Bypass dig and convinced himself he was in the wrong place. This was about 6.30pm and could have saved us a callout! After much ferreting about they decided to return and exit via Daren. The initial search party caught them up and they exited via Ogof Cnwc.

At 01.55 all were back at Whitewalls and by 02.30 all SMWCRT away.

Thanks to all that were called out or put on standby and to the Southampton students staying at Penwyllt who offered the use of a mini bus if required.

SMWCRT