Post date: Jan 26, 2009 9:24:18 PM

Stephen 'Muh' Macnamara, Damien Datry and Stephen 'Bus' McCullagh

Trip Time: 5 hours

After the surprising dye tracing results obtained over the Christmas holidays which suggested that quite a lot of the water coming from pigeon pot goes to Cascades, a few of us decided that as Little Gortmaconnel is the most likeliest route of flow it would be the digging priority for the next few months.

The cave has been visited twice before by me; 5 years ago the upstream end of the cave was investigated for its potential as a dig site. However after a promising start, it was abandoned due to an avalanche of boulders which in-filled the previously cleared passageway. The second time was 9 months ago when I was joined by Chris Jewell, Simon Cornhill and Aileen Connor with the aim of looking for potential digsites.

In total two promising spots were found; a small and extremely tight rift heading upstream located just to the left when climbing up the small climb leading to the second series of pitches and; a dig in boulders at the bottom of the short pitch located below the big entrance pitch. It sounds complicated but a quick trip would straighten that out. For this trip it was decided that the dig in boulders was probably the most promising option.

The trip itself got off to a bit of a lazy start as it was 2pm before we got changed and the walk up wasn't the quickest either. I decide to rig the pitches as I had installed a couple of hangers on the last trip so I knew the rig. The rope is first rigged off a dodgy looking tree just beside the entrance hole and goes down 5m to a wet daylight chamber. The route on is straight ahead down a sandstone boulder covered slope (be careful! its best to stay on the rope). The next pitch-head involves a Y-hang from two naturals (these naturals used to be quite sharp but they are now more rounded after the application of a lump hammer) down a damp rift until you come to a curious J shaped rock and a convenient hanger; these two anchors provide the Y-hang for the next pitch. If necessary, and it nearly always is, there is the possibility of rigging a deviation 2 m down (bring a ring hanger and sling for this) to avoid the small and not so small rocks that tends to come down from the entrance slope. The way on to the main streamway requires a swing across to large ledge 3 m from the bottom and following the mud slope in the far corner the second series of pitches is quickly met (these pitches are best rigged from the top of the mud slope). For this trip I abseiled to the bottom and rigged a rebelay using one hanger down the obvious tight slot.

At the bottom Damien and Stevemuh joined me and we set about moving some of the infill that had come in with a small stream . After half an hour of digging the promising site turned distinctly unpleasant due to pondin of the water. On suggestion from Stevemuh the dig was abandoned and instead we checked out the sand-filled rift in the corner. During the previous trip this area didn't seem promising but on second viewing it was definately the better option especially as removing the spoil required little effort. Steve set about digging but unfortunately what looked at first like sand turned out to be calcited gravel interspersed with large angular stones.

After an hour of digging and a small bit of progress we set out. Steve volunteered to derig and paused briefly to try (unsuccessfully) and remove the precariously placed boulder below the J-shaped rock (I must remember to bring a sledge the next time). Half an hour later we were off down to the car for the journey home.

Bus