Post date: Oct 1, 2013 8:29:47 PM

Cavers: Steve Bus, Jock, Michal, Al

Trip time: 12.75 hours

Once again the exploration of Teampal was fueled by fries from Clancy's in Glenfarne, over which we talked of where we would emerge from Teampal – Pollnaleprechauns or Deep Pot? But there was only one way to find out, so, armed with digging tools, survey kit, and much enthusiasm, we left a callout for 10 am on Sunday and set off.

After relatively little faffing, we entered the cave at 2pm, Steve choosing to rig the wet pitch (traverse high in the rift from the obvious thread belay, via a spit on the left wall, to a Y-hang on spits).

This wasn't too wet, just a bit splashy. After a quick de-kit we crawled off to the new extensions. First up was a sightseeing trip into Heaney's Hall, and a quick assessment of the potential there. Steve just about fitted through the dig, Jock and i had no issues. Jock offered up a few lines from 'Digging', we took a look at the prospects and agreed there were two, one of which is very pretty. But north was where we wanted to go, so we returned to the beginning of the SUMC Passage.

First though there was some surveying to do. Starting from the end of the wet crawl from the Memory Stone chamber we shot 12 legs to a stal at the base of Steve's (the Muh variant) Other Aven. Steve sketched, Jock taped, and I did the instruments. Michal meanwhile went off to excavate the Bloody YouTube a bit further. By the time we had surveyed up to it it was of very comfortable dimensions. The bags were brought through and left at the end of the Very Pretty Chamber before Steve's Other Aven while we finished the first survey stint.

When we reached Steve's Other Aven we packed away the survey kit for the time being. An open lead lay not far ahead and we were itching to get to it. We fortified ourselves with a short snack break (Steve banned tea-breaks) and then got on to the exploration. Several leads in the boulder pile beneath Steve's Other Aven were looked at but nothing was found. En-route to the end we checked several other possibilities but these were insignificant. More importantly, none of them were draughting. We reached the end of the cave whence came the draught, and Michal was offered the virgin passage.

From Petie, Éabha, and I's previous end a narrow rift continued north for a few metres before reaching an area of clean-washed rock but abruptly closing down. Luckily there was a narrow crack at the floor under the left wall, into which Michal went, finding a small muddy chamber and an area of breakdown, from which the draught issued. Between two boulders was a squeeze down into apparently open and solid passage of crawling dimensions. The squeeze was too tight, so Michal and i commenced hammering. Steve and Jock meanwhile had climbed the aven above the crazy chert nodules at the previous limit of exploration, but although it had looked promising nothing was found. Jock then went back to fetch the chisel.

For two hours we battered away at the rock, until Jock was able to squeeze through. After another bit of enlarging Steve followed, then Michal tried, but it needed more work to get him through. We decided to check out the passage for a bit to see if it continued and the dig was worth enlarging, so leaving Michal to enlarge the squeeze, I slotted through and the three of us crawled rapidly and very excitedly down a grotty passage, through a mud swamp, and then into Something Very Big. We whooped and shook hands. This passage was very different to the rest of Teampal. It was clean and dry for a start, and the rock looked more like that in Largy. There was no streamway, and very few drips. It felt old. And there were at least three large open leads visible from where we stood at the end of the squalid crawl. First though we went back to bring Michal through the squeeze, our policy being to Leave No Lad Behind. After another 15 minutes of hammering from both sides he was able to get through and we returned to Something Very Big.

For a while we sat at the end of the squalid crawl in the big passage, eating a Mars bar that had been rattling around inside Steve's lid for seven hours. We let the significance of what we'd achieved sink in, and agree on what we were going to do. We decided that we would leave one of the three leads, and in return for pushing through to Largy (we hoped) we would survey up to the end of the squalid crawl before leaving. The three leads comprised: on the right a passage running north and obviously dropping into something; a climb above the entrance to the northern passage; and smaller opening to the left which headed west. We choose the northern lead first.

This definitely headed north, but wasn't draughting, nor was it the stomping passage we hoped for. Instead it dropped into the base of an aven, full of broken rock. The walls were cherty and the limestone was brittle, and in the lower part of the aven a very coarse limestone was visible. There were abundant fossils in the rock, many washed free and lying in piles on the ledges. From the base of the aven a small muddy crawl led off east and northeast (this was later pushed for ten metres by Jock).

While I climbed out the loose pit at the bottom of the north aven, Steve took a look at the westward trending lead, felt the draught, and saw an open passage. We all gathered at the beginning, and then pressed on. The route went through a low passage into a chamber with a dried mud floor, from which a low crawl entered a fine aven - Adrienne's Aven. This was about ten metres high, with a large shadowy passage entering from the west about seven metres up, which appeared to be of walking height. The draught blew through the aven. Again the rock was fascinating, and much better quality, with some flatish, shapeless quartz-like (chalcedony?) crystals visible on one wall. It was very dry too. The climb would need some protection so we left it for the future and, after spending some time in contemplation, returned to the junction area and checked out the obvious climb here. This could also repay a push, and also the area above the Loose Aven, appearing to reach the major bedding plane that dominates the ceilings of SUMC Passage and Heaney's Hall.

We returned to the bags and took a quick break to decide what to do next. It was 10 pm. Michal had arranged to meet some friends and was already very late, and so he left lest they become worried. Steve, Jock and I started our penance. I'll let Steve's survey comments tell the story of the survey...

Across chamber | Start of up | Squeeze | Up ramp squeeze 7 m lost of tape | [blank] | Left to bedding plane | Flat out | Across chamber | Rift | Vertical | Rift | Chamber | [blank] | START OF SQUEEZE | Below SQ | Squalid | worse | WORST | vertical | [blank] | [blank] | marked on wall

By the end of the second survey stint we'd cut 700 cm off the tape to make it fit into the reel, and additionally we were mentally subtracting however much of the tape i had to wrap around my hand to hold it (this got confusing!). Jock had to spit and lick the tape to read the numbers, i had to lick the eyepieces of the Tandem to read the bearings, and Steve was more or less etching in mud. I threatened to mutiny if Jock put a survey point in the middle of the swamp. At last it was done, we took another break and a few photos of the big passage, and left, reaching the surface at 0245 on Sunday morning.

Al

Total surveyed: 73.20 m in 12 legs during first stint; 89.16 m in 22 legs during second stint; total 162.36 m in 36 legs. Final survey point marked 35.

Total surveyed to date: 213.40 m in 44 legs.

Description of Shannon Series so far:

From the Memory Stone chamber slide under the north wall down among boulders to a wet crawl heading west. After 20 m this enters the SUMC Passage. Turning south at the junction and crawling around the right-hand side of the mud bank which almost fills the southern end of SUMC Passage a flat-out crawl leads into Heaney's Hall. This is a large chamber from which the mud has been washed by water which splashes from a choked aven in the centre of the ceiling. A climb to the south leads to a pretty bedding plane, while the water runs down under the west wall.

The large SUMC Passage heads north, initially dropping over a two metre high wall of mud and boulders. It leads under a couple of rock bridges and then up a mud ramp to low section under the impressively even bedding plane that forms the ceiling of Heaney's Hall, SUMC Passage, and beyond. After 40 m, SUMC Passage ends at Bloody YouTube, which leads into the continuation. The passage heads up into a pretty chamber, then down into the base of a large aven, floored with large boulders, before rising up another mud slope with a squeeze mid-way, to enter a small chamber. A low crawl to the north drops into a rift and then a loose climb and squeeze up through boulders reaches a small aven (which was climbed to a short high-level passage) with prominent chert nodules standing proud on the east wall. Ahead the passage splits into two rifts, the left-hand one being too tight. The right-hand one continues for several metres and also becomes too tight, with an area of clean-washed rock visible ahead. There is a slot under the left wall of the rift, that opens to a small, low, muddy chamber. From here a squeeze down through some breakdown to the north (Leave No Lad Behind) drops into a squalid crawling passage which after 20 m opens into a large passage. This is the end of the survey.

To the right a passage heads north, dropping into a loose-walled pit, to end after 25 m under an aven. A flat-out crawl leads east and northeast from the pit and has been pushed for 10 m. A water-splash enters from the ceiling of the aven. Above the junction area a climb reaches an area of high-level bedding. West from the junction a low crawl enters a mud-floored chamber, from which a crawl continues west into the base of Adrienne's Aven, which is 10 m high. There is an estimated 60 m unsurveyed passage beyond the squalid crawl.