Post date: Sep 16, 2018 5:16:49 PM

Stephen Macnamara, Stephen Jock Read, Al Kennedy. 6.5 hours.

Claire and I had been bolting in Creature's End before we moved to England, and had left rope, bolts, and 2 leads at the top of a 20-metre climb - see the trip report of 19 Nov 2016. A return trip had been on the to-do list for some time - if for nothing else, to retrieve the gear.

Claire was off doing birdy stuff in Mayo, but was happy to let Al, Jock and me push the leads. The plan to meet in the pub on Friday night changed into a plan to meet for breakfast at 11:30 on Saturday morning, and eventually became a reality of Al and I meeting at 12 with Jock catching us up at the Cladagh Glen carpark at 13:30. Plenty of faffing including getting measured up for a wedding outfit, leaving furry suits in Belcoo, etc. made for a late start at the cave entrance at 14:30.

Jock lead mostly through the entrance series to firm up his knowledge of the route - and we got to Creature's End some 2 hours later. We had a quick look at the Sistine Chapel twine left in place since our bolting several years ago. Al had a suspicion that we had also left a rope hidden under a boulder here - something I had no recollection of. However, after a quick search, he did indeed find it tucked away and neatly coiled. Yet another Shannon rope stuck in another bloody cave. Jock started to rig the pull through but quickly realised the rope was too short, so we went over to the other side to begin our main objective of the trip, the climb on the other side.

I prussiked up to the ledge 20 metres up, and Jock followed. Al stayed below, setting up a bivvy out of reach of rockfall. The ledge at the top was at least three times smaller than I remembered, and we could have done with more than two bolts to clip ourselves and all the gear into! We both discussed the options of the vertical bolt climb of 8m upwards versus the traverse around the corner to the left, and agreed that the latter was the easiest win to start with. Jock belayed me on a dynamic rope we had carried in, to allow me to drill a hole on the corner above the traverse. Here is where I found that (a) the rock screws I had so carefully purchased were crap, hardly cutting through the rock at all, and (b) the drill bit I had so carefully purchased was too short for the rock screws I had so carefully purchased. Two unsuccessful holes later I gave up on the rock screw plan.

Fortunately I had a few through bolts so was able to place one of these instead. Quick-draw in, Jock continued to belay me around the corner, where I was immediately onto a stable-ish boulder slope. I tied the end of the belay rope around a boulder, and Jock secured his end to the Y-hang at the top of the climb, and then he followed me around the corner using the now-fixed traverse line.

The boulder slope ran upwards to the back of the rift - probably to about 10m above the Y-hang, and 25m horizontally to the back wall. It was quite a sizeable area, 3m wide and very angular: massive square blocks had obviously fallen from the ceiling. The back of the boulder slope came right up to ceiling level, where there was a small dripping inlet with a gour pool. On the left hand side, there was what initially looked exciting - a black tunnel about 2m in diameter. However, this almost immediately degenerated into microtubes in the ceiling. A muddy squeeze did not look appealing or promising, so we turned back.

The traverse back was a lot more exposed, and the 20m drop to Al below was far more visible when climbing downwards! Once Jock was back at the Y-hang, I released the fixed end on my side, and Jock belayed me back around the corner. We had a long look at the vertical climb above the ledge, and decided it really didn't look that hopeful. We therefore called it a day. Jock abseiled down to the small ledge 10 metres below, using the dynamic rope doubled up for a pull through on a single anchor (so we could retrieve at least one of the anchors). I then derigged the previously left static rope, and followed him down to the small ledge. We repeated this for the last 10m leg back down to Al. (I also had some antics with pulling through the rope with a knot left in the end, which I had to freeclimb up a few metres to retrieve before it jammed.)

With the retrieved gear, the 3 bags were heavier for our exit, but we still made decent time - about 1 hour 15 min. A lovely mild night awaited us, and we jumped in at the weir to wash gear before heading to the chippy and pub in Blacklion.

Steve.