Post date: May 13, 2016 5:31:50 PM
A short synopsis of the aven climbing performed between 2009 and 2011 - Contains portions of other reports. A portion of this is recorded in the Shannoneer, 2016
About 8 or 9 years ago, during an ICRO rescue practice, I was sitting beside Eoghan Lynch waiting for a stretcher to be hauled out of Noone’s Hole. As with most of the rescue practices I attended back then, the conversation inevitably turned to cave exploration and on this specific day, the exploration of the further reaches of Noone’s hole. I was curious to know what had been investigated in Noone’s since the 1996 publication of COFAC. After regaling me with a couple of stories of pushing pristine inlet streams in Arch II, Eoghan briefly mentioned the presence of some unclimbed avens somewhere off the main stream. I filed these comments away in my memory vault and didn’t think about them again until late 2009, when Steve Macnamara and I, fresh from our successes in Shannon, were scouting around looking for other aven climbing opportunities in Fermanagh/Cavan.
Recalling the conversation with Eoghan, I reread the description for the Noone’s Arch system in COFAC. On the very last paragraph, there is mention of a large unclimbed aven at the far end of an inlet in the upstream section of Arch 2. During the next few weeks we had some discussions with other cavers (notably John Moore and Steph Dwyer) and realized there was another unclimbed aven in High Noone’s Left (HNL). We made a general plan to climb a number of these over the winter period and arranged a reconnaissance trip on December the 18th 2009 (See below for report).
Caving on Friday, wohoo! Had planned to do a bit of bolting in High Noone's Left, but as time was against us, we decided to use this trip to transport gear down (rope, bolting gear) and then do the job the following day.
We only got into the cave after 2. The water levels were low, so we rigged the normal route. We dropped off the gear at the top of the 5-metre pitch in H.N.L. and decided to have a quick trip to Arch to look at the upstream side - which neither of us had been to before.
We took a detour to the end of the 5th inlet, which ends in a complete calcite blockage after 140 metres. Once through the tight, wet, pleasantness of the connection, we turned right to go upstream with the Arch river. It starts off as walking/stooping passage in the streamway and passes an aven on the left. Soon the passage opens to walking and a bit of climbing and traversing if you want to avoid the chest-deep water. The passage has a nice shape with lots of roof pendants, flakes and fluting in grey-black rock - quite reminiscent of the downstream Afternoon Series.
We went as far as the sump, which was well decorated with black bale wrapping and divers household rubbish. The orange polypropylene dive line had been cut (hmmm..). On the way back, we climbed into the muddy tube in the right wall and pushed through a fair bit of squalidness. It opened into a tall, narrow meander which was rather difficult to pass, but definitely worth it...
On the far side, a 25m (estimation) aven soared into blackness. The walls were coated from top to bottom with trickles of calcite flow. It was possible to chimney up the continuing rift on the other side, which took us via steeply ascending passage to another climb rigged with divers' orange polypropylene string (hmmm..). It looked a bit thin, so I stepped on Steve instead and then rigged a sling for him to use. Another impressive aven was at the top, and again it is possible to ascend the rift on the far side. However, the rock is covered here in extremely slippy black calcitey stuff and we couldn't do it safely without rope/bolts, so we turned back at this stage.
As far as we're aware this is the limit of previous exploration in this passage.
On the 9th of January 2010, we entered Noone’s hole, this time with a drill and the remaining climbing gear and proceeded to the aven in HNL. The aven is visible a short way upstream from the ladder climb and the start can be reached by climbing a mud bank on the right hand side of the passage. Below is a short extract from the trip report.
“We were soon in High Noone's Left, where we pulled up at the aven on the right hand wall, some 100m before the boulder choke. We aimed for a high passage just to the left of the main aven, which was obviously connected. With Bus (Stephen McCullagh) belaying and me bolting, we got into it after 4 bolts.
We connected into the aven and were able to look at it properly for the first time: unfortunately it closed down immediately. The area comprises a network of smallish tubes and rifts. We chimneyed 6 metres up the only passable one (this was difficult - even Santa Claus thinks so). At the top there is a small, horizontal tube partially filled with hard clay. We dug for a while until I could get my chest through, and with no sign of it getting any bigger we left it. We rigged a permanent line and removed the climbing bolts before returning to the streamway.”
The next confluence of settled weather and sufficient motivation didn’t occur again until the 9th of April 2011. On this trip we were joined by Petie Barrie, Eabha Lankford and John Moore. Below is an extract from the write up.
For the first time in months it looked like there was going to be good weather. With that in mind a hastily planned trip to the far reaches of Noone's Hole was planned. The objective was to bolt climb the aven spotted in a previous trip at the end of the inlet upstream Arch 2.
Steve and I went down to Fermanagh early on the Saturday morning to pack rope and bolting gear before meeting the others in Wetherspoons at 10am for Breakfast. At 12 we arrived at the carpark and I went off to rig the normal route down the pitches. At the bottom I was quickly joined by the rest before we all headed off in the direction of the aven. After a fairly uneventful trip we made it to the aven and Steve and I proceeded to gear up for the climb. The climb wasn't as high as I remembered, and after 5 bolts Steve made the top and rigged a Y-hang for me to join him. I got to the top and entered a large chamber adorned with calcite. With no obvious ways on at floor level a decision was made to go for a high-level rift about 8 metres up. We didn't have much rope with us so I pulled up the rope from the previous pitch and Steve continued bolting upwards. Unfortunately this meant that the others were stuck below us and didn't get to see the chamber.
After a further 6 bolts the problems started. Steve was just 2 metres from the bottom of the rift. First the drill died, then we realised that we didn't have enough rope for both pitches. Eventually we formulated a plan to get us safely back down by using the minimum amount of rope, so that we could just about leave rigging on both pitches.
We were pleased with the made on the day, but disappointed in not making the continuing passageway, so we planned another trip into the cave. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long for the next period of settled weather. During the 12th of July weekend (2011) we re-entered the cave. On this trip the two Steve’s were rejoined by Eabha Lankford; Aileen Connor also accompanied us.
Steve (Macnamara) took the lead climbing role again and prussicked up to the previous limit. He drilled the first hole, and after placing the rockscrew, he realized to his dismay that he had brought the wrong spanner. This wasn’t readily apparent to those of us on the chamber floor 8m below. After what seemed to us to be an inordinate amount of time, it was apparent that something was wrong. Fortuitously for our exploration, a couple of not-so veiled threats from the spectators below provided Steve with some much needed inspiration. In one extremely bold climbing maneuver, he thrutched the remaining 2- metres up into the beckoning passageway. A Y-hang was rigged between a ‘natural’ and the dynema cord from his footloops. This allowed us to join him for the next step of exploration.
The rift passageway that we entered sloped upwards at a 45-degree angle. The rift was about 1- metre wide and 2.5 metres high. Making our way up the passage, we engineered a route past a couple of squeezes until an impenetrable sandstone boulder blockage is encountered. A strong draft emits from between boulders at the farthest end. This area was pushed to completion.
Going on the approximate elevation, attained both through our bolting and the general upward direction of the passageway leading up to the climb, we suspect that the termination boulder blockage is relatively close to the surface maybe another 15 m vertical distance or so (A survey was completed see attached).
From the original survey, the end of the inlet appears to be geographically close to Noone’s hole and it is conceivable that a second entrance could be engineered into the system.
There may be opportunities for a bolt climb straight up the main aven. This bolting route may even attain higher elevations than we achieved, however that will be for future generations.