Old (Desmond) Mitchelstown Cave.......In Tipperary!!!

[a dry caver]

This is not Londegans but a cave not too far away.

Artur got to -16mts in crystal clear vis before running out of dive line (he only brought the 40 mt one) left the 90mt in the transport on the surface argh.

I was on the surface watching him at about -12 and if the writing on his helmet had been large enough I could have read it.

The photos are taken with a 1mp mobile phone and Arturs torch.

[a dry caver]

More photos

[RogerViking]

intresting i will have to arange acall to art

[ardhill]

Artur got to -16mts in crystal clear vis before running out of dive line (he only brought the 40 mt one) left the 90mt in the transport on the surface argh.

At least he got to actually dive. Most of my cave 'diving' lately has been done with a snorkle.

One the positive side, my 'dry caving' sklls are improving   

[arturconrad]

At least I got to dive?!  Guys !!! That was one hell of dive! This place is crazy - visibility 20m+, floor of the cave under the water is sloping at 30-35 degree, when I was at -14m it continued down as far as I could see.... That was actually my second dive in the cave on that day. The first one was in the Sump 1 where I reached -11m and very tight section after 20m few weeks back. Last Friday I tried to pass it but it proved to be very awkward. Vis was gone very quickly and despite digging in mud the way on was still too tight. I removed one of my 7's which helped a bit and I could feel some progress. Nevertheless I decided to call the dive. That tight awkward rift definitely opens up into something bigger after 4-5 meters, i could see that very clearly, but I need to think about some other strategy to pass it.
Next we turned our attention to second and third pool which seemed to be connected underwater. When i reached -14m I realized that I forgot to reconnect my drysuit hose  . Unfortunately at that stage  hose connection was filled with sticky mud so my attempts of quick reconnection didn't work quite well...Suddenly i felt all the pain of my Open Water students when I asked them to perform that skill... I was rolling down pretty fast destroying the vis completely and when I finally inflated my drysuit at -16mvis was nil and I felt there was no point of going any further...mea culpa...
I returned to the surface and took second lead in the same sump and that was a point where my line run out...I can't wait to go back there and I try to figure out how to get some nice underwater shots or video...

artur

[ardhill]

Me Jealous  :'(

[Penguin]

And me...  :'(

[arturconrad]

Just came back from Tipperary where I continued exploration in second sump. Last time I tied off the line at -16m, 25m from the entrance. The way on continued in 15m+ vis. Two tight places were negotiated over heavily muddy bottom. The angle of the slope is ~40 degree so any attempt to belay the line causes clouds of silt rolling down the slope ( that calls for quick belay...   After two low squeezes the way on continued as 1-1.5 m wide and 3-4m high rift. Silt screws didn't work as under  soft mud the floor was covered with calcite so I had to use lead blocks. At -34.5m I run out of blocks and courage... Before clouds of silt from the slope covered everything I could see further way on for at least 10m , still going down at similar angle. It looks like it's gonna be in Top 5 of deepest sumps in Ireland. Return was in 0 to 10cm vis and twice my fil d'Ariane brought me to a dead end - due to lack of belay points line must have been dislocated. It's not a nice feeling when you hit the roof where you expect to have exit. Luckily I remembered those places on my way down as potentially dangerous and the way out was quickly found. But it was still quite stressing...
Total linear distance of the sump by now is 53m.

to be continued...

artur

[ardhill]

Well done Artur

Are you going to add a couple of belay point around those 2 dodgy points now or just wing it again 

[Graham Cowley]

Just came back from Tipperary where I continued exploration in second sump. Last time I tied off the line at -16m, 25m from the entrance. The way on continued in 15m+ vis. Two tight places were negotiated over heavily muddy bottom. The angle of the slope is ~40 degree so any attempt to belay the line causes clouds of silt that roll down the slope ( that calls for quick belay...   After two low squeezes the way on continued as 1-1.5 m wide and 3-4m high rift. Silt screws didn't work as under  soft mud the floor was covered with calcite so I had to use lead blocks. At -34.5m I run out of blocks and courage... Before clouds of silt from the slope covered everything I could see further way on for at least 10m , still going down at similar angle. It looks like it's gonna be in Top 5 of deepest sumps in Ireland. Return was in 0 to 10cm vis and twice my fil d'Ariane brought me to a dead end - due to lack of belay points line must have been dislocated. It's not a nice filling when you hit the roof where you expect to have exit. Luckily I remembered those places on my way down as potentially dangerous and the way out was quickly found. But it was still quite stressing...
Total linear distance of the sump by now is 53m.

to be continued...

artur

I think the term "Balls of Steel" should be used in any sentence using your name , safe diving!

[BOB1577]

Arthur, sounds like it could be an exciting project and not to far from me as well. The silt bank sounds a bit worrying but i am sure we can put in some deep silt screws and overcome that. I will be out for another week or so but give me a shout if you heading down as i have 2 weeks off for x mass and can give you a hand with gear etc if you need or just drive you around as its only about 30 mins drive from place with the new road.

Keep up the great work, at this rate there be no caves left for the rest of us to explore HA ha

[arturconrad]

Ardhill - probably not....  unless on the way up from next dive... If I only try to touch the line on the way down the clouds of fine silt will roll down the slope...  so I'd rather leave it as it is. I guess it's  cutting a corner a bit but then you know, passage is quite small in those places so you can't be really lost. It only can make a difference when you come back already stressed or/and with some equipment problems or/and low on gas or...hehe , lots of these or/and.... yeah, so I might try to fix it on the next dive...

Balls of Steel - hehe, far from that Graham...but I wish I had pair of those - less weight on harness

Bob, absolutely, I will. Maybe not for this project as it requires a bit of climbing but Londegan's is still waiting....

cheers

[Graham Cowley]

Ardhill - probably not....  unless on the way up from next dive... If I only try to touch the line on the way down the clouds of fine silt will roll down the slope...  so I'd rather leave it as it is. I guess it's  cutting a corner a bit but then you know, passage is quite small in those places so you can't be really lost. It only can make a difference when you come back already stressed or/and with some equipment problems or/and low on gas or...hehe , lots of these or/and.... yeah, so I might try to fix it on the next dive...

Balls of Steel - hehe, far from that Graham...but I wish I had pair of those - less weight on harness

Bob, absolutely, I will. Maybe not for this project as it requires a bit of climbing but Londegan's is still waiting....

cheers

Lead balls maybe? 

[arturconrad]

Hi guys,

Another Friday Night Caving trip took place in "in not so secret anymore cave". Planning a major assault on Carol's Sump in second lake (-34.5m on last dive) we brought 4 cylinders of which two were 12l 
Movement through cave with such a heavy load was difficult and previously proven paths suddenly became very slippery and treacherous.
Diving with 12ls was a bold move but somehow too much for me on that day. I knew that whole operation had to be extremely precise and quick. There was no way I could reach end of the line and attach new reel BEFORE clouds of silt from the top would get me but I was still hoping I could do that job swiftly enough to move ahead of silt cloud and make some progress in good visibility.
Passing tight sections with bigger cylinders was disaster -  a siltout I was causing behind was just ridiculous. At -32m, close to end of the line,  in astonishing visibility ahead I could see the rift continuing for another 20m to a depth of -45m. After that it disappeared in blackness indicating further continuation. I took only short glance but that moment of distraction came with price. First I've noticed end of the line loose and floating up towards me. Strange I thought as I could swear that I saw it firmly belayed to the bottom only second ago...   However I stopped immediately to avoid entanglement. Visibility started to deteriorate very quickly. I looked behind and just before cloud of impenetrable silt covered me up I saw floating coils of loose line. Fuck. My first thought was that line from the reel on my hip came loose and now was all over the passage. Fuck. I vented my suit slightly and sank in soft bottom. I didn't have to care about visibility anymore, I was already in blackout. I reached behind  to check the reel but to my surprise it was locked with line in place. Then I understood. It was my main line in the cave, my fil d'Ariane that was gone. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I swept area around me with hands but there was no sign of it. I used 6mm PP floating line so it must have been already by the roof, in tight crack and out of my reach.The only reassuring thing was that I knew the passage was pretty straightforward and small plus steep slope was indicating way back. Nevertheless, after few tries when my movements onward  or upward were stopped by constriction of the passage my composure started melting down quickly. Far too quickly. I must have forgotten that I was more bulky with 12ls and some spots were simply too tight. Finally I made my way to previous belay point  and from there back to the surface.
I'm sure I have learnt something important on that day but I still need some time to figure out what exactly it was  
Then we moved to third pool and  I dived in only spot that was showing any continuation but the way on soon became too tight.
We came out after 6h.
I took few pictures underground, above water.

artur

[arturconrad]

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