Post date: Apr 11, 2017 10:05:23 AM

Team: Éabha Lankford, Petie Barry, Hugh Norton.

Plan: Make way down towards mistake passage and check out and survey any high-level leads on the way there, survey high level passages around Mistake Passage.

Time: 7 hours

After being coaxed into coming(driving) on the trip by Éabha, I left Dublin early picking up Éabha and Petie on my way up. We arrived at McGourty’s cottage around twelve to find the prime parking spot taken up by filthy unwashed hikers. The farmer graciously offered us the use of the cottage complete with fire to change in, which we spent the next hour or so struggling with the TopoDroid interface trying to get the DistoX calibrated.

Once we were reasonably satisfied with the calibration we got changed and headed up to the cave, entering it at roughly 2pm. Progress through the cave was quick and uneventful. Just opposite Absalom’s attic Petie spotted a possible climb up on the left. He went up it and after confirming that it was virgin passage and worth surveying me and Éabha broke out the surveying gear and followed him up.

The climb up was hairy enough body jam up a crack that shorter people may find more difficult. It emerges into a rocky chamber with the way on trending upstream. Next chamber was a largish chamber with a big mud slope leading up on the left. The passage then continued through a larger muddy chamber to a section decorated with straws and well preserved mud layers. The way on required hopping over a narrow section of canyon over the main stream passage way. The passage continued for a further twenty meters with the final 5 being a very sketchy traverse ten meters above the Main Stream Passage that Petie traversed while being carried by exploration fever. The top left of this passage was densely decorated with straws. Going back to chamber with the mud slope I led the way up it until I went through a hole on the right which led to a short passage that overlooked the largest chamber, the climb across the chamber looked too dodgy and muddy to attempt so we left it there. With us having explored surveyed as much as we could safely we returned to the main stream passage. We named the passage Type 1 Fun.

After a few quick sambos we packed up and continued downstream past Swinger’s Corner where I let go of the rope a bit early and got wet up to my waist. At the start of the choke just after the Vegetable Patch Petie climbed up high on the right through a small chamber with plenty of loose rocks in it. Me and Éabha followed and after some climbing it broke into some large chambers where you could no longer hear the sound of the stream. We back surveyed then until we regained the Main Stream Passage. This bit of Passage got called No Craic Passage due to it being generally no craic.

We continued on a bit further and found two Sandy Oxbows that had been entered before but hadn’t been surveyed. With time running short there was not enough time to continue on to mistake passage so we turned back. Exited the cave at 8:45pm helped by the fact that we didn’t have to derig as the rigging was being left in place for the Student Caving Forum. Went down to Blacklion for garlic chips and a short hello to Gaby, Al, and Magda in Maguires before driving back down to Dublin.

-Hugh

Total length of new passage added to survey: 146m