Post date: Jan 7, 2018 9:58:44 PM

Cavers: Petie Barry, Magda Kluj, Al Kennedy.

Time: 2.5 Hours

Aim: To continue our efforts to relocate the lost streamway of the Yorkshire Ramblers.

Despite my intention to wait for a dry spell to return to Pollasumera, Al was dying to get back into Pollasumera. So we planned a trip in. Al went up to the entrance on Friday to gauge the water levels - much higher than before. I was concerned that the lower parts of the cave might be flooded, but we’d no idea how much water it took to flood the cave. Besides the water was falling, and with none scheduled to fall, it was possible that things would improve.

Arriving at the cave on Saturday Al noted that the water was a bit down, but not dramatically. We made our way down the main stream and reaching the point where the stream normally sinks we found fresh foam all over the place. A few metres further on the passage was sumped off. No arguing with that.

To rescue something from the trip I decided to have a look at the an interesting climb a few metres back up from the point where the passage sumped. This climb was about 5m high, entering a muddy-looking passage heading upstream. This was probably climbed by the Reyfad Group in the early 70s as a grade one sketch heads off from this point on the survey. I’d been here before with Gaelan, when he’d climbed up onto my shoulders and decided it wasn’t do-able without a maypole or a rigid ladder.

Now with our other plans for the trip dashed there was an incentive to try this climb. My thinking on this passage was that it was probably just a high-level oxbow, but there was a chance it might veer away from the main passage towards a sink in the Prods-Gortmaconnell area, so I reckoned it was worth a look.

It was a difficult prospect. About 3m up there was a muddy ledge, from which a muddy chute led up for 2m into the passage. The lower part of the climb was undercut, so even getting to the 3m ledge was a challenge. Al had the inspired idea of getting a log from the streamway to clamber up, and around the corner he found the perfect one - 2.5m long, straight, footholds in the right places. With this in place, and by stepping on Al, it was possible to reach the muddy ledge and clear some of the mud off, giving a better foothold. The final 2m up the muddy chute looked do-able, but exposed and sketchy. A few aborted attempts later I made an exhilerating dash for the top and made it up. A 6m tall rift lead off back upstream.

Al threw up a rope and I found a stal boss hiding underneath some mud giving a sound anchor for him to climb up. Leaving Magda to do some mineral collecting, we headed off up the passage. This was a twisty narrow mud-floored rift never much more than a metre wide. There was a lot of second-rate calcite, a few pots in the floor to climb over, and the sound of the stream below, coming up through cracks in the floor. After 50m this ended fairly definitively at a calcited heap of breakdown. We called the passage ‘This is the End’, as Al prematurely announced the end of the passage several times only to find it keep going round a corner. We surveyed back.

At the climb Al went down the rope, which I threw down after him. Down-climbing the climb was a bit tense, but I made it down safely with some spotting from Al and Magda. Overall the trip was a bit disappointing but I’m glad we got that climb explored and surveyed - I mightn’t have bothered otherwise. We also got to see the cave in fairly high water which was educational. I’d estimate that there was only 40% more water going into the cave than on our November trip, yet that was enough to flood the bottom half of the cave.

- Petie