Post date: Nov 19, 2018 12:49:00 AM

Team: Matt Palmer (BEC), Veronika Schroeder (UCD), Conor Martin (UCD), Emily Punzalan, Petie Barry, Steve Muh, Claire Macnamara.

Time: 7.5 hours

Another Shannon working trip to;

a) continue the never-ending surveying of high-level passages

b) install fixed aids up to the Russian Roulette dig in preparation for another push there

Arriving at Mistake Junction we split into two teams - myself, Emily, and Matt to survey Pisstake Passage, and the rest of the team to work on Russian Roulette.

Pisstake Passage got its name because it was a difficult, sketchy alternative to entering Mistake via the streamway, and it was expected that no-one would really use it much. Ironically it’s now become the usual route into Mistake, and in an effort to make digging at Mistake a more comfortable affair, a handline has been installed here. Previously this started with a difficult thrutch up a rift, with a big drop underneath, but on the last trip here Seamus placed a pair of bolts to tie a handline to, and now it’s both safe and straightforward.

We surveyed up through the short, narrow rift, which pops out into a big chamber. At the end of this a scuttery climb dropped back down to the stream. I’d expected Pisstake Passage to be 80m+ of passage, so I was surprised to find the surveying end after barely 30m. Instead I asked Emily to lead the way into a fairly obvious crawl high up at the end of the chamber, which I presumed to be the actual way on. This quickly became a flat-out muddy crawl, and it was apparent from the amount of gardening Emily had to do that this passage had never been entered before. This was both surprising (in the sense that it was a very obvious route), and unsurprising (in the sense that it wasn’t a hugely appealing passage).

The initial low slabby crawl became an awkward narrow loose thrutchy rift, which then became a comfy flat-out crawl over dried mud. This finally entered a sketchy breakdown chamber and it seemed as if a connection might be made with Russian Roulette. Just as the passage was entering increasingly dodgy territory I spotted a hole in the floor by the wall. 12m below the stream could be heard, and in the distance, drilling. Just beside the hole lay a muddy paw-print where someone had previously popped their head into the chamber for a look - the entrance to this chamber is actually noted on the survey.

Emily carefully lead the way down to the stream, via a 60° incline of dried mud and boulders. Matt followed down the crumbling climb in her wake, and then I nervously made my way down using the remaining rapidly-disintegrating handholds.

At the bottom Steve and Claire joined us from Russian Roulette for a quick chat, and once we’d tied in the survey we headed back to Mistake Junction to pick up a frosty-looking Conor and Veronika, leaving Steve and Claire to wrap up their drilling.

So another high-level loop established, though I’m not sure too many will make a repeat trip. Even if the initial part of Pisstake Passage is now the main route into Mistake, at least this new bit lives up to the name. We surveyed 110m of passage, about 60m of that can be considered to be new.

- Petie