Post date: Jul 29, 2019 8:39:05 PM

Team A: Stephen Macnamara, Tony Furnell

Team B: Petie Barry, Adam Prior, Patrick Bore, JP Wallace

Time: 10 hours (6 for Steve and Tony)

Aim: Do a pair of bolt traverses in Statiomaster, survey the end of Mistake Passage.

A momentous trip, as the surveying of the high levels, began in early 2017 was finally to draw to a close. Aside from a few tidbits that we don’t expect to bother with anytime soon, Stationmaster was the last major going lead in the high levels. On the last trip here in November 2018 Adam and I had pushed the main level to a pair of big drops to the stream, needing rope to cross. There was also the final section of Mistake Passage to be surveyed, running through the boulders till it properly choked.

Fittingly, we were graced with presence of two of the three cavers present on the first surveying trip way back in 2006 - Steve and Tony. Tony had dusted off his caving gear for the occasion - his antiquated equipment was quite a sight! Dressed in tweeds with only a carbide caplamp for illumination, he insisted on being lowered down the pitch in a bosun’s chair “the way we always used to do Tullyard”.

We split up at Tullyard, with Steve and Tony shooting ahead for Mistake and the larger gang trundling along behind. At Stationmaster we picked up the rope I’d deposited here a fortnight earlier, and clambered up into the higher levels. Reaching the main upstream lead I cracked out the drill and placed a total of 4 rock screws to traverse along a muddy ledge and over a wedged boulder into the going passage. While Adam was training JP and Patrick up on surveying, I went for an explore, which ended very quickly when the passage choked off at all levels. The end choke was quite interesting - there was obvious fluting in the rock here from water falling from above, as well as copious cherty rock and sandstone boulders. The cherty beds of limestone I believe are much higher up, so obviously they’ve fallen in from some way above. The same goes for the sandstone boulders which I’ve never noticed before at these levels, and were angular as opposed to stream-rounded. There was also a few stumpy straws and curtains, some of the very few formations found underneath the shale cap. It looks as if there must have once been a shaft coming in from high above, from a window in the shale. I don’t know of any feature on the surface that would match this - perhaps it’s now buried under glacial till in the bed of the Pollahune river?

Anyway, having surveyed 25m of passage we derigged and headed for the downstream end of the Stationmaster Series. Here there was a drop of about 12m that need skirting around. The passage was passing directly over the top of the oxbow close to The Anvil that Steve and I had surveyed in March. Just after arriving we heard Steve and Tony below, returning from Mistake Passage having surveyed 25m of passage. After a shouted conversation they went on and the drilling began. I placed five screws to traverse along a ledge and over a scary rock bridge onto a bit of level ground. This quickly met another big drop. Here the rest of the team joined me as I figured out how to progress into the ongoing passage. I kept following the left wall but one screw later realised I’d need much longer legs if I was to continue. I then crawled along a muddy ledge above a 10m+ drop and almost made it over, but I didn’t fancy the committing step across the void onto a wobbly boulder that would bring me to terra firma.

Instead I crawled back, removed my last concrete screw and crossed the rope to the far side of the passage where my last two screws and krabs got us around the corner. Here there was more sketchiness awaiting. Previously I’d described the Stationmaster Series as ‘consistently sphincter tightening’, and it continued in this vein. While Adam and JP followed with the survey, I scrambled ahead to the head of another scary drop. I couldn’t see this properly as the roof came down low here, but gardening rocks made an ominous booming for longer than I’d have liked. Passing this involved sliding out leg first under the roof and into a void, feeling for some boulders sitting at the top of the drop with your feet. Once through I scrambled up the slope and tensely watched the rest of the lads sliding through the muddy slot.

On the passage went around another corner, into another downright scary bit of passage, the floor a see-through lattice of boulders, with the stream visible 15m below between each and every rock. After a bit of psyching up I picked my way across the rickety boulders praying that the passage would end soon. And end it did, mercifully, with the passage turning a corner and reaching a big drop to the stream. The last survey leg was shot, and I once more tempted fate and made my way back across the lattice of boulders to the lads, now thoroughly spooked by the passage. Overhead though was a fine sight - a huge sweeping roof looking up into a high muddy passage. There was no way up though, and little enthusiasm to return. These very high muddy passages tend not to go very far in any case.

Getting back up the slippery slot was a worry, but thankfully it was OK, and soon we had derigged and were packing up on the far side of the traverse. Proper exhilarating exploration! On the way out I decided to take a look at another high muddy section that I’d spotted on the way in. This was an easy climb up, and while it had looked like an impressively large chamber from below, in reality it was just 20m of sloping muddy passage. Nonetheless, despite pushing our callout close, Adam and I added this to the survey, to save having to come back to it.

We emerged after 10 hours, 15 minutes before our callout, and with 110m of passage in the book. Including the 25m added by Steve and Tony, that brings Shannon to a length of 8550m. A tidy sum. Stationmaster has produced 400m of this.

On the housekeeping front Steve and Tony removed the old 20m rope that had been left at Mistake Passage on the previous trip. Some of this was used to renew the hauling rope at rebirth, which was starting to get quite tatty. Still a lot of old rubbish in Shannon that needs removing - no shortage of reasons to go back!

Congrats to everyone involved in the surveying over the years! A worthy body of work - now on with the drawing up.

Petie