Pegasus Caving Club
aka Pegasus Club Nottingham
Exploring The Pyrenees 1000m Underground
Gouffre Pierre Saint Martin
By Aaron Smith
The Teams
Note: YSS - Yorkshire subteranian Society. PCC - Pegasus Caving Club. Crewe - Crewe Caving Club.
Team 1
Antonio Emmanouilidis, 54, YSS. (AE)
David Kestell, 48, YSS. (DK)
Andy Phillipson, 53, YSS. (AP)
Bruce White, 50, YSS. (BW)
Matthew Garrett, 45, YSS. (MG)
Antonio Emmanouilidis
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David Kestell
Andy Philipson
Bruce White
Mathew Garrett
Team 2
Ade Pedley, (leader), YSS and Crewe. (AP)
Neil Griffiths, 55, YSS. (NG)
Andy Stewart, 61, YSS. (ASt)
Ade Pedley
Neil Griffiths
Andy Stewart
Team 3
Aaron Smith, 57, YSS and Pegasus CC. (AS)
Robin Kane, 35, YSS. (RK)
Phil Hawcroft, 45, YSS. (PH).
Mark Krause, 67, YSS. (MK)
Aaron Smith
Robin Kane
Phil Hawcroft
Mark Krause
Diary
5th September
(RK) and (AS) leave Carlisle at 10am.
We share the driving in AS car to Folkestone and La Shuttle. (They let us on early .... he-he).
6th September
RK and AS arrive at Ibarra Campsite, St Englace at 12noon after a 25 hour drive from Carlisle.
RK and AS explore the river at camp. (It's very chilly and AS tests out his 'rubber ring'). AS drives up to La Verna, EDF tunnel entrance into the PSM main system, exploring the parking situation ready for the next day or 2.
7th September
Team 1 (AP, DK, BW, MG and AE) rig the first 5 pitches of SC3.
Team 2 and 3. Have a 7 and a half hour trip in La Verna. (More on this later in the report).
8th September
(AS) goes out for the day. (Swimming, exploring, drive out)
Team 1 do their trip in La Verna.
9th September
Team 2 and 3 rig the last 2 big pitches in SC3. (AS, ASt and PH) have a little look around for 20 minutes at the horizontal passages leading on from the final pitch in SC3. Concluding that there's a few small bits but the route is generally well marked with 'red dots' occasionally arrows and some striped tape.
Team 1 have a rest day.
September 10th
Team 1 do their through trip from SC3 to La Verna.
(RK and AS) go to a steel suspension bridge to look at a dam. Then do a canyon near camp which has extremely unstable walk-ways (thats why it was closed) while others rest. A once well visited cave at the end looks interesting, but the water levels, traverse lines and lack of caving gear means we turn back after 5 mins.
Aaron and Robin on the steel bridge above the dam near the campsite
The dodgy Canyons extremly unstable walkways
September11th
Team 2 and 3 do their through trip SC3 to La Verna.
September 12th
Team 1 do a small cave through trip.
September 13th
Team 2 and 3 do a small cave through trip known as Source de ka Bidouze. (Just over 1hr).
(AS) goes walking and finds the others looking around a huge resurgence cave that quickly sumps.
Team 1 de-rig 5 pitches in SC3.
Source de la Bidouze
September 14th
Team 2 and 3 de-rig last pitch in sc3.
(AP and PH) de-rig the last 2 pitches in SC3.
(NG) goes hiking. (RK) rests his feet.
(AS) explores PSM resort and eats. He try lots of food, including 2 puddings and a pint of Kronenburg.
September 15th
(RK and AS) go canyoning for 2 hr 30 mins (half of the canyon). More on this later in the report.
September 16th /17th
RK and AS head off to stay at a Gite (Hostel), do Padirac show cave and go to Le Shuttle.
Trip Reports
La Verna
Team 3's report: We collected the permit and the 'key' to the big metal door of the EDF tunnel into La Verna main chamber from the cafe opposite the old church in the centre of the village of St Engrace. Then a 10 min drive to a parking area 300m from the cave entrance.
Neil, Robin, Ade, Mark & Phil. Getting our permit from the cafe in St. Engrace
La Verna, EDF tunnel entrance, into the PSM system
The EDF tunnel was very windy and the main chamber was amazing. Ade started his way up a concrete path on the left wall with a hand rail. The others continued looking into the vast darkness of La Verna. I (Aaron), picked up Ade's route and the others soon followed. Ade was reading the guide notes and diagrams, we were clearly on the right route.
Next was more walk-ways, a traverse around the drop, a hike along a river and another traverse with a steel bar. Then onto 'Adele and Queffelec' chambers. Next is 'The Metro' .... a great passage with dimension similar, but bigger, to the upper series in Ease Gill and Lancaster Hole. After just under 4 hours we landed at the Cavern, Lapineaux, where there's a tribute to a 'fallen' caver (he had died here) who spent a good deal of time on a stretcher waiting for his remains to be ferried to the surface.
Resting up deep into the La Verna entrance passages. 4 hrs in.
See Video
We stashed a few 'things' here for our main through trip, in a few days. Stuff like, food, sweets, tea bags and a bottle or 2 of water. Over the next 20 mins we got up to the start of 'Navarra' chamber (huge). We could see the continuation and a climb down. It was time to turn around and exit. The outward and return trip took around 7 and a half hours. All cavers were happy and in good spirit. A very successful exploration of the exit area and the last 4 hours of the cave.
Aaron Smith
SC3 to EDF Tunnel Trough Trip
Team 3's report: (PH, RK, AS, and MK).
We abseiled into SC3 at around 11am. Steady progress was made down all the fantastic pitches. Phil, closely followed by Aaron landed at the base of the final pitch in just over an hour. Robin arrived soon after and Mark a few minutes later.
SC3 Entrance to the PSM system. Andy Stewart (Team 2) descending
Then onto a tight-ish vertical squeeze and soon after a tight-ish horizontal squeeze. Lots of climbing, scrambling and route finding took us, slowly, to where the other main vertical entrance, Tete Savage, entered the system at Sala Cosyns. This took around 2 hours or just under.
Another hour took us to The Grand Canyon. This was a fantastic place, with long pools, canyon, tall roof spaces and reminiscent of the Lost John's stream way or the main drain in Ease Gill. With a few walls of fallen rocks to clamber over here and there, the passage finished in a final huge boulder area.
The 'Galeria de Las Marmites' followed soon after and our, or rather 'my' little error.
Aaron was slightly ahead of the others, towards the last section of Marmite Passage area. He walked past the rope on his right and entered at one end of a 50m lake, which was between 2 siphons in the main PSM underground river. He ventured off to waist deep, then swimming sections. He turned to Phil and the others and 'questioned' his options. Phil said, 'Let's have a look, it's most likely the way'. Aaron had just 'read' the description of the route and it didn't mention another lake but lakes seemed to appear and disappear throughout the previous sections. Upon reaching the far side of this lake, Aaron shouted back as progress had slowed. It became apparent that RK had lost a 'wellie' in the deep water and the team had failed to recover it. When all of the team re-grouped Aaron said, "bad news guys, this is defo the wrong way"... We returned to the previous passage and all 4 of us seemed to be concerned about how cold we were getting. Meanwhile RK lost his second wellie in the deep water. Aaron said, "I'm really cold, I think I'm going to need a hot drink and 10 mins in a rescue bag". This was sorted on a lofty, dry area once we had located the 'proper' way on. Mark produced a big silver rescue bag and Aaron climbed in for 20 mins. Phil joined him for 10 mins. Mark and Robin lit a candle for warmth and the 'jet boil' burst into action. A hot chocolate was prepared and Aaron and Phil shared it. A sense of recovery was achieved, and all of the team then continued on the correct route.
It was around 9 hours underground to this point. Shunt de la Hidalga was our next focus, with the idea that it would be a challenging climb. It was obvious when we found it and easy enough in the end. Maybe a bit squeezey.
Sala Principe de Viana.... was next. A big room which, without markers, was difficult to work out where the next passage was. Later we discovered that all teams found this area confusing. We did after 10 mins, find the small crawl through to the next chamber, '', The Wind Tunnel.
Showing Marmite Passage, Sala Principe de Viana
and The Wind Tunnel
We had been using our inflatables, (I had a small inflatable triangle from a canoe and a big 'fun' inflatable 'ring of melon') when we crossed some of the previous lakes but this place, the Windy Tunnel, was the place we needed them most. There was a good, secure, rope to pull on but the big pool, lake, was quite challenging and very cold. Robin was a lucky chap at this point as I gave him my 'big melon ring'.
After we had all successfully crossed the deep, Wind Tunnel lake, most of us wanted to put on some dry clothes. I stayed in my wet clothes because as long as I kept moving, my 5mm wetsuit was the best option for me. I took this opportunity to have another hot chocolate and then I made one for the others to share. (Using my Jet Boil). 20 mins further and we got to the biggest chamber of the day so far, Navarra.
Sala de la Navarra is huge. Probably took 40 mins to cross. The 10m climb and scramble at the end is the same, exact, location that we had reached a few days before from the La Verna entrance. This meant that the rest of the cave exploration was going to take 3 to 4 more hours! (That's great). Quite a relief for Robin who, without his wellies, was caving with 3 pairs of socks and a pair of wet socks on his feet. (Very wet, cold and sore).The rest of this route is reported in the 'La Verna' entrance trip.
Navarra Cavern, probably the second largest
in the PSM system
We finally landed in La Verna main chamber. The biggest chamber in the PSM system and, I believe, the largest natural room in Europe. Out through the EDF tunnel we went. Built by the hydroelectric people and used, in the last few years, as the entrance to La Verna Show Cave. The whole Cavern is lit up with 'flood' lights and is quite spectacular.
Aaron Smith
La Verna Cavern. (Note scale bars at bottom & right)
La Verna cavern's dimensions are a diameter of 250 meters, a height of 194 meters, an area of 4.3 hectares, and a volume of 3.6 million cubic metres. It is known as the world's largest underground chamber accessible to the public.
Team 1 do SC3 to La Verna in 16 hrs
Team 2 do SC3 to La Verna in 16 hrs
Team 3 do SC3 to La Verna in 19 hours.
A French group of 3 make an early start on 11th September and complete the through trip in 15 hours. (Using our in-situ ropes with our permission).
Canyon trip for (AS and RK) on 15th September.
Aaron and Robin headed off to a 'canyoning' trip 20 mins drive from camp. The access sounded good and the middle and end both had good clear paths back to our car. We rolled up at the parking spot to find another team of 3 kitting up for the same trip. This was a Spanish lad, leader, in his late 20's, a Spanish lass in her mid 20's and an Argentinian lad, novice, in his mid 20's.
We decided to follow one another and share our ropes, hopping over each other as we went. This worked very well for the first 10 ish abseils until the 3 of them seemed to speed up and get too far ahead. The Argentinian lad, Tommy, hadn't done anything like this before. He was wearing a 'lacrosse' helmet and learning the sport on the job. At one point we got ahead and the 3 of them 'jumped' the pitch we had just abseiled down. When it was Tommy's turn he jumped a little too far and missed a rock outcrop, 2 ft under water, by 'the skin of his teeth'!
Well on we went, all pitches were good fun and had different take off’s and landing with one needing a 'fixed' traverse over a very slippy shoot.
Robin and I were quite enjoying all of this but, as it was the day before heading home and general fatigue, we scrambled out of the gorge at around an hour and a half into it. This left about an hour left for another time and day.
A smashing afternoon it was. Plenty more for next time.
Aaron Smith
Surveys courtesy of ARSIP the Association for International Speleological Research at La Pierre Saint-Martin, a French organization that coordinates caving activities and permissions in the Pierre Saint-Martin massif.