Pollnaclanawley, 14-17 August 2021

Day 1 - Sat 14 August

Petie, Michal, Alex Dhawan, Ashley Gregg

An afternoon trip after driving up from Dublin and opening up the Scout Hut. This was planned as a short trip to get down the first few pitches before starting surveying the following day. The entrance is small and unassuming, a small doline with a short scramble into a small dry chamber with a narrow drop along one side - this is actually the top of an 18m pitch. I initially rigged off of a pair of naturals and wriggled down into the pitch at the widest spot. Once below the narrow pitch head, it’s a straightforward drippy rift pitch, which after about 8m undercuts itself. I think Bus and co. free climbed down from this point but I decided it was worthwhile putting in a few rock screws as this would be a trade route for the next few days. I prussiked back up to the surface and placed a pair of rock screws at the top, one on the wall opposite the pitch (backed up from a surface tree) and one right at the lip to deviate the rope through the narrowest bit. Further down the pitch I swung away from the drips and put in a comfy Y-hang to bring you to the bottom. From here the passage doubled back under itself and the stream flowed down a tall rift. A few short down-climbs later a pitch was reached, dropping into the main chamber. This was easy enough to rig off of a pair of obvious spits, though the one on the right was rusty so it wasn’t possible to fully tighten the bolt and I had to live with a bit of a swivel in the hangar. This was a short 5m pitch entering a fine chamber. Straight ahead the floor fell away into another pitch with a stream coming in from above, and on the opposite wall a well-decorated high-level passage could be seen heading off horizontally. This was where we left it for the day.

Day 2 - Sun 15 August

Petie, Emily, Michal, Adam, Rob, Shane Diffley, JP Wallace

With the team assembled in the main chamber I set about rigging firstly the traverse into the high level passage (easy enough with a few slings and a 10m rope), and then with Michal’s help I would rig down the third pitch. Adam and Emily would survey to the surface from the main chamber, and Rob, Shane, and JP would survey stalagmite passage and take a few photos. Rigging-wise the third pitch was tricky, as for the first half it descended at an angle and good overhanging rock was hard to come by. Using the Y-hang from the second pitch, I placed a deviation using some dyneema that Michal lent to me, and further down a single rock-screw for a rebelay. A few metres further down the pitch finally dropped vertically and I was able to place another rock-screw to deviate the rope down the final 7m drop. A 20m pitch in total. At the bottom the way on was through a narrow window into a miserable looking drippy 6m pitch. Using a 5m long dyneema sling Michal and I rigged the rope through this and using the rope bag as a rope protector I was able to wriggle through and descend under the drip. Below I clambered down a rocky slope to another pitch/climb of about 6m again. This was a slightly unnerving climb down, a bit too wide, and required stepping on big chert shelves that projected far out from the walls. Thankfully nothing broke off and within a few strides I reached the muddy sump. Not very appealing looking. The rift is very tall above the sump, and a sizable drippy flow comes in here. The survey the following day would show this sump to be 73m below the surface, a slightly surprising depth. After I came back up through the window Michal ventured in for a look, and on the return to the surface we went for a look into Stalagmite Passage - some excellent decorations here, but digging prospects to Peter Bryants look slim.

Day 3 - Monday 16 August

Petie, Rob, Rocky

Surveying. Rocky and Rob carried on the surveying, dropping down the rope of the main pitches. Meanwhile I carried some rigging gear and the drill in the direction of the Ominous Pitch explored by Steve Bus and Co. in 2011. This meant going back over the traverse in the main chamber, and walking past some nice formations for about 10m to a squeeze. This meant taking my SRT kit off, and once through it was possible to walk and traverse along 30m of well-decorated rift until the first (and wet-looking) pitch appeared in the floor ahead. Easily avoiding this by climbing upwards towards the roof, the second (Ominous) pitch was reached soon after. This was guarded by a huge stal boss to once side, and after a bit of searching I found one of Steves spits. After depositing the bag I went back to the main chamber, kitted up again, and descended down the rope to Rob and Rocky. After wrapping up the survey of the main pitch series, I derigged the ropes from this section and packed them up for the Ominous Pitch, while Rob and Rocky surveyed along the well-decorated passage. Once at the head of this pitch I popped a hangar into the first of Steves’ spits, put a 5m sling around the big stal boss, and put a hangar into the second of Steve’s spits, which I found in the ceiling after traversing out above the pitch head. I decided to place a rock screw adjacent to this, to create a proper Y-hang. Once this was in I was able to descend. The first section of pitch slopes away at a slight angle, so about 10m down you have to place a deviation where the pitch drops away vertically. It was a fairly intimidating pitch, deep and black with loose, rotten walls. Any chert dislodged would fall away and bang and boom against the walls below. The last time the SG was here the team had been unable to get off the rope, as the bottom of the pitch was flooded - I was hoping that it would be dry today, but looking down, even with the Scurion on full beam, I couldn’t make out what was on the floor 25m below, so black and muddy was the bottom. At the very least, I couldn’t hear the rocks landing in water, just a soft thud, so it seemed as if there was a mud floor at least. I found a tenuous deviation and started abesiling down. Down and down I went, but as the floor approached, the rope ran out. Dangling in the middle of the pitch, about 8m off the floor I could see in either direction along the rift. Back in the direction we’d came from, I could see the first pitch through a window, water dripping down beyond. In the other direction, the rift ran at high level, along a false floor, seeming to stretch for 15 or more metres. Below, a mud floor, speckled with all my gardened rocks. There would have to be another day in Clanawley.

Day 4 - Tuesday 17 August

Petie, Rob

Just Rob and I today, hoping to finish the job. We traveled fairly light to the top of the pitch with most of the rigging already in, but with a 10m rope in tow to get down the last bit of the pitch. I decided to pop in a rock screw for the deviation as it was easily unhooking itself from the natural it was looped around whenever there wasn’t downward pressure on the rope, basically whenever there was someone above the deviation it was coming off. So I got a screw in and abseiled on down to the end of the rope where I tied in the extra rope and abseiled down. Despite bringing an extra 10m there was still only half a metre to spare on this one, once surveyed the pitch was found to be 35m in total, the 40m of rope we had was only just enough to get us down. But get down I did, landing on a soft muddy/peat floor which funneled down to a choked hole. I had a brief look towards the bottom of the adjacent wet pitch before scampering towards the more promising end of the rift, where it was heading off into the unknown. The rift was about 1.5m wide in this direction and immediately went up a steep mud slope. Kicking and grunting up this slippery incline it leveled off and then a 4m climb had to be ‘back and footed’ up. The rift ran off horizontal from here for about 10m, but reached a squeeze into a U-bend. After de-kitting I wriggled into this, and through the U-bend another horizontal section led off, reaching another U-bend in the floor of the passage, then another, then a final choke. I’d come about 40m from the bottom of the rope. Back through the third U-bend I went and looked for a high-level route. Just above the U-bend was a steep muddy climb, going up about 4m to a constriction, and with the rift continuing beyond, though narrow. I fought my way up this tricky climb till my head was in the constriction, but it was clear that I wasn’t going to have enough traction to force myself through, if it was even passable. I executed a controlled slide/fall back to the floor and headed back to the pitch, doing a mental survey as I went. Reaching the pitch I could see Rob through a window up ahead, just above the knot, after he’d surveyed down the pitch alone. However he struggled to pass the knot in the rope, an over-long footloop meaning that he was unable to detach the handjammer once on the lower rope. After several attempts at this he gave up and prussiked back up, which was just as well as I was now very cold and shivering - I was caked in mud and subject to a powerful draft running along the rift, heading in the direction of Black Pot. Once Rob was off the rope and chert stopped falling down the pitch I was free to pass under it and have a quick look at the base of the first pitch via a bit of a wriggle up though some boulders. Just past this there was a very drippy/dribbly section that I almost ran across, and in shades of Steve Muh escaping the carwash in Pollnagort, nearly walked down a pitch on the far side. This was about 5m deep to a boulder floor, but this lies close to the sump at the bottom of the main pitches, so no real prospects here. Escaping this miserable wet rift I got back on the rope and we derigged the rest of the cave.

Thoughts

While at the time I thought I was the first person to get off the rope and push along the rift, tt was only after coming back from the exped that I got a chance to do some research on the exploration history of the cave, and discovered that in 1976 Jeff Philips and Paddy O’Reilly had dropped the Ominous Pitch and explored to the same choke - it’s described in the Reyfadeer 2 in Irish Speleology 3.2. The terrible description in COFAC2 doesn’t describe this section at all. Leads wise, there’s still scope for a push further south along the rift. The choke is pretty final, but the narrow muddy climb before it might be worth pushing a thin keen person into. There are two high level runs along this same big rift accessible from the pitch. The first is visible just below the ‘deviation point’ and runs along a false floor for what looks like 10m and apparently continues. About 10m below this is another false floor that runs along the rift for a good 15m, with a stal visible in the far distance. Both of these passages would be tricky to reach, needing a big swing to get anywhere near, and possibly bolts to traverse along into the mouth of the passage. However they might continue above the choke towards Black Pot. There’s a big draft in this rift, which must end up in Black Pot somewhere. The survey has returned a length of 285m and a depth of 73m.

- Petie