Post date: May 2, 2011 10:39:34 PM
Cavers: Aileen, Gaelan, Petie, Al
Trip time: 6.5 hours
Initially conceived as a shorter fun trip to check out prospects at the end of the Oxbow Inlet (sump and dig) and to look at an aven in The Farr Country with a view to climbing it at some future date, it evolved into a combined digging and climbing trip. So, laden with climbing kit in two bags, and with two other bags holding a crowbar, lunch and additional warm clothing, we sweated up to Tullyhona in wetsuits and oversuits. Soon we were speeding through the welcome coolness of the cave. It's a very enjoyable trip, but very hard on oversuits. After the Fenian Terror rents were beginning to appear in all oversuits. In The Farr Country i missed the junction, and not sure whether we had accidentally taken the left (wrong) or right (right) tributary i made everyone back-track (with bags) to the Twin Titties. The junction was then located, and we went back down the right-hand inlet (Oxbow Inlet), although Gaelan and i dropped the climbing kit at the junction. I went to Sump 2 (Whiskey Sump) which was really inviting, a nice tube with vodka-clear water. When i met the others as i headed back we sat in a dryish bit of stream and ate lunch, before splitting up. Aileen and Petie continued upstream to Hywel's Horror and beyond, and Gaelan and i went back downstream to find the promising aven.
Dreams Die Here climb
We walked slowly back downstream, check out promising avens, and some sections of passage with draughts. However nothing was obviously exciting or promised any lead until we got to the larger Dreams Die Here aven, located after the first left turn in the streamway from Crystal Crunch and before the large gour formation on the upstream left. Here the passage widens out and the stream flows between a couple of gravel beaches. High on the upstream left wall is a large opening, which appears to be the beginning of a higher-level passage. We kitted up, and Gaelen wrapped himself in his extra fleece and large bin-bag with arm and head holes and settled down to belay.
Starting to the left, to avoid an overhang on the right and quickly reach what appeared to be a free-climbable rift leading up to the 'inlet', two bolts revealed this rift to be blind. After posing for a photograph, i made a traverse to the right on two screws around the corner to gain decent-looking rock and a free-climbable corner. This move gave horrendous rope drag, so Gaelan freed the rope from the lowest bolt then i freed it from the second. An awkward thrutch on muddy calcite led to a narrow ledge. Here i got a sling over a spike (more psychological protection than a physical one) and peered up into the 'inlet'. It looked much less promising from here. I procrastinated over climbing a bit higher 'just to be sure' and decided that one more screw would suffice. From here it seemed possible to free-climb again onto the uppermost boulder, from where i could definitely say the aven was climbed and had no prospects. The rocks were a bit loose though so after tentatively climbing a few inches i dropped back onto the knee-hooks. However, behind the upper boulder i had seen the top edge of a shadow that might - just might - be the opening into a passage... I placed another bolt, fitted the rings to it, climbed up, and had a good look. It was just a mud-filled alcove.
Being stingy, i decided to downclimb and de-rig on the way as there are very definitely no further prospects in this aven. All the screws were removed. Aileen and Petie arrived back from their digging as Gaelan and i were washing down kit and packing up. Aileen suggested Dreams Die Here as a name for the climb.
The Digging Report
After Al and Gaelan disappeared downstream to their climb Aileen and I were left to poke about at the boulderchoked upstream end of Oxbow Inlet. The sump as reported by Al was indeed inviting and looked a sure-fire prospect if it was to be dived. We started our explorations by climbing up above the stream into the bouldery mess of Hywel's Horror. After a few minutes we climbed up almost directly above the sump and clambered to a junction. I descended back downwards towards the stream and Aileen continued upwards into the boulders. I was quite surprised to find myself back in the stream beyond the sump after an easy descent. Here, the stream flowed into a bouldery sump, meaning that the sump would not be passable by diving. The streamway choked almost immediately afterwards. After investigating a climb that went nowhere I had a go at the choke, crawling flat out to an awkward upward squeeze. Beyond this more choke was met but a passage continued beyond. Bent U-Shaped over a boulder I tackled the offending boulders for a good half hour until they were cleared. I however was too long to maneuver into the ongoing passage. I wriggled back to let Aileen through and she passed the awkward bit and dissappeared. In the meantime I scraped at a wet gravelly bit in the streamway that I thought might be passable with a bit of effort.
After 15 minutes Aileen was back to report that the passage choked only about 5m ahead but a climb led up to a high chamber where there was a downward squeeze that looked passable. After more gravel was cleared from the squeeze I managed to pass it with half my face in the water. Aileen led the way on up the climb, with me following close behind. Go tobban, I was showered with a selection of medium sized boulders from above, striking my arms and helmet. A bit dazed, I scrambled back and Aileen released more loose boulders that had been dislodged. They fell to the bottom of the climb and splintered. A few moments later Aileen was wriggling back down the climb to the sound of more boulders falling. After a frantic call of "Pull me!" Aileen was out of the tight bit and back in the stream. Having had our fill of new passage we exited the extension.
In all some 15m of strongly drafting new passage was found. It was surprising to bypass the sump so easily, especially given that people tried to dive it 10 years ago. The boulders will be given some time to settle before a further assault is made.
- Petie
The return was uneventful, with a short detour to the Sump 1 waterfall for Petie and Aileen, although punctuated by numerous lamentations as oversuits shredded.
Al
Addendum: yet again the screw-in bolts impressed greatly with their ease of use, security, and the ability to completely strip a climb leaving only small holes and bit of dust. The rock on much of the climb was far from ideal, and probably mostly calcite covered in a thin layer of mud. A bolting hammer would have been very useful to have, to tidy up some of the hanger placements and more especially to test the soundness of the rock - for several placements i resorted to tapping the walls with my Simple to find areas that were not (so) rotten.