Bamboozled by Boundary Again

[samueld]

I didn't feel quite like going somewhere new, but I wanted to take advantage of the dry weather so I decided to consolidate my knowledge of the Depot route down Wretched and come out via Boundary to test the description I wrote.

The ground was frozen solid so none of the usual bog traps were a problem on the walk over the fell. Progress down the route was quick and uneventful, and Flashbang Crawl flashed by. I decided to take Gypsum Caverns/Easter Grotto, having not done that in this direction before, and the airy traverse into Nagasaki.

All was going well until I got up above the climb into the crawls near Bar Steward’s Passage; I couldn't find my inlet crawl. To be back here after so long and still unable to find the way on at the same place was very frustrating. I pushed myself up the first anthropic hole on the left and this brought me onto a steep slope of those black, slippery rocks, which seemed to end at a choke at the top.

I couldn't find another passage on the left until a fair bit further downstream. This forked. I initially chose the left route as I could hear falling water, but this got too tight to be plausible (I don't remember any awkwardness to the crawl). So I tried the right-hand branch. This seemed to end halfway up the aven I reached on my first exploration of this area - not the way on either. It's as though this passage only exists when you're coming into the cave.

Frustrated, I turned around and exited via Spiral Staircase instead (taking Thackray's Passage for variety). I suspect this is my fastest exit yet - 15 minutes from Holbeck Junction to the exit at Wretched Rabbit (despite accidentally finding myself in the beginning of Upper Green and Smelly after some autopilot traversing). I stoomped up the top section of SSP (a new word I'm coining for stooped stomping) and was soon out again to a sunny (but bitterly cold) day, relieved to have brought my diving undergloves for the walk back.

To anyone considering taking my Boundary description for a spin, I'd suggest waiting until I find the opportunity to go again on the inward route and make a better note of how to find that passage!
And to anyone who knows Boundary well and can see where I (or my description) go wrong, please do let me know. I wrote the description from memory after a similarly failed trip out of Boundary and a successful one in that way a year or two ago.

Timings:
Car to entrance 0:22
Entrance to Stop Pot via Depot Passages 0:25
Stop Pot to Holbeck Junction 0:05
Holbeck Junction to Nagasaki (via GC/EG) 0:24
Faff up Boundary, and back to Holbeck Junction 0:58
Holbeck Junction to WR exit (via SSP) 0:15
Walk back to car 0:22

 

[langcliffe]

The route description is accurate but I don't understand the description where you got lost, above.

 

[flashheart]

Interesting!
We did a trip from Top Sink to Boundary a few days ago. I wasn't aware of your description, so I reversed the one in Northern Caves. We spent a while trying to locate the start of the Savage's Bypass crawl at the top of the chamber, but once that was found the rest was pretty straightforward. There was very little water flowing in the crawl, so the stream and 'watershed' which I was expecting weren't really a feature. We passed another tube crawl on the left, and presumably passed a bedding crawl towards Bar Steward's and the pitch on the right, before reaching the little chamber with the 5m? climb which you have mentioned. From there it tallies closely with your description.

 

[langcliffe]

This is the Braemoor description from the entrance.

 

[samueld]

This is certainly the area in which I got confused. I was confident of my navigation as far as the blue highlight. But then finding which crawl on the left to take always seems to be my undoing here. I keep managing to find myself in the complex of crawls which just peter out to chokes.

I assume the slope of black cobbles I mentioned is the one highlighted in red. But I'm not sure which of the other passages I was in - I find it hard to discern the overlaps here.

 

[samueld]

This is the Braemoor description from the entrance.

That's what I had tried to reverse on my original trip.

The floor rises again to a crawl, and soon a junction is reached.

This line from the description describes the junction I keep managing to lose

 

[langcliffe]

Having got up the awkward little climb into the low tube, there are a couple of bends, and the passage ascends to a watershed where water can enter from a heap of boulders on the left. The passage veers to the right. At this stage, the passage has become flat out, and boulders may need to be moved aside. The passage then descends to the Bar Stewards Passage junction, which may not be noticed. Following the obvious route, the way on goes through a higher section which can be a canal. Then follow your nose.

 

[samueld]

Thanks langcliffe, that makes sense. I think I know now where I had gone wrong. Am I right in thinking the correct route follows the leftmost passage visible on the survey snippet above (just under the text label Bdy9)?

 

[langcliffe]

Thanks langcliffe, that makes sense. I think I know now where I had gone wrong. Am I right in thinking the correct route follows the leftmost passage visible on the survey snippet above (just under the text label Bdy9)?

I think so. It's not very clear.