Vercors 15th – 30th August 2008
If you weren’t already aware of it there was an international caving conference in the Vercors this summer. The Vercors (just south of Grenoble, France) has absolutely stunning scenery, it’s a “plateau” at about 1000m which can only be accessed by a few roads (most with multiple hairpin bends) including the very impressive route through the Gorges de la Bourne. The “plateau” has mountains round the edges (and in the middle) some of which are over 2000m. The Gouffre Berger, visited by the YSS in 2006, is probably the best-known cave in the area but it’s a popular area and contains a wide variety of caves. The conference took place in the last week of August and was based in Villard de Lans. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to fit in lots of caving we decided to go out a week early and do some decent trips before the caves were flooded with enthusiastic cavers – we weren’t the only ones to have this idea. The plus to the second week was that several caves were to be prerigged as part of the conference, saving us the effort of rope carrying, rigging etc. At the outset this was Hades trip and, since Hades members traditionally like luxury, we booked ourselves into a gîte in Corrençon about 5km from Villard. When few Hades members showed an interest in the trip we opened it to other people and ended up with quite a mixture: Damian & Fiona Weare, Mike Skegg and Sam Clifford (Hades/YSS); Jennie Lawrence and Robin Weare (Hades); Andy Clark Greg Jones, Jan Karvik and Chris Stott (RFDCC) and Steve Tomalin and Jon Holden (GSS) along with 4 other non-cavers, al of whom went caving and enjoyed it. This report probably includes only half the caving trips done by the party and none of the canyoning, but not all the trips have been written up yet.
Sunday, 17th August - Scialet Joufflus (by Damian)
A good sleep helped us recover from all-night driving, but we still weren’t up for a big trip so we set off for the Scialet Joufflus and the Scialet de la Fée Anglaise, both fulfilling all the requirements admirably … short, easy, next to the car and not far from the gîte. Uncharacteristically for us, we went straight to the entrances (they were about 10m and 40m from the car respectively); nobody had forgotten any gear and everyone seemed enthusiastic! Unfortunately the plan of two parties rigging the caves and then swapping afterwards soon disappeared, as some French cavers had beaten us to the Fée Anglaise, so we all got cosy in the Joufflus instead. I rigged down; making lots of positive noises about how attractive the pitches were as I went. Jennie, on her third SRT trip, was ably looked after by the rest of the party and, it being our first day, we turned around as soon as it looked as if we might have to actually touch rock! The highlight here was definitely Sam’s new light (henceforth to be known as “The Sun”) illuminating every inch of a genuinely very attractive 25m pitch. We emerged to a sunny, but fairly cool Vercors afternoon a couple of hours after going in. Excuses flowed for not bothering with the Fée Anglaise and we were soon back at the gîte. A very pleasant first day.
Party: Fiona, Robin and Damian Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford, Jennie Lawrence Time: 2hrs
Monday, 18th August – Grotte Inférieure de Bury (by Damian)
9 years ago I went to this cave and came away overwhelmed by its brilliance and a bit frustrated that we hadn’t made it to the bottom. Ever since then I’ve thought about the Bury and longed to return and now was my big chance. Extremely uncharacteristically, Skeggy had done a brilliant job of packing all the ropes the night before and an enthusiastic team set off for the car park bright and early. A bit of a search around for the entrance (for future reference:- walk to the Source of the Bury then walk uphill for about 150 yards) and we were soon sitting down a few metres underground, cooling off and escaping flies. Everything that I had remembered was still there … a superb stream with a beautiful white floor that dropped downwards with a few short pitches and lots of short climbs - wonderful (and similar for me, but better, than the Trou Mille in the Henne Morte system) For added entertainment, and to make sure there’s a bit of effort involved, there’s also a crawl with a pool of cold water in the middle that leads directly onto a tight (30cm) pitch. Then comes a wet section requiring some interesting traversing to avoid a soaking before the best section of streamway yet … loads of little climbs, really nice stal and a few entertaining climbs up and over blockages for added value. We’d been going for a couple of hours when, at around -175m, I came to the 18m Puits de l’Escarpolette. After using the 3 obvious (and good) spits I then tried every height possible to find something else to rig off … and failed. It was obvious to me where the spits needed to go as there was a vast quantity of carbide soot about 5m further out over the pitch and a good 4 metres above my existing spits. I don’t like rising traverses at the best of times but this one, with almost no protection even when I got there, was way beyond anything I was willing to do. A glance at the guidebook rigging info suggested that there was meant to be a fixed handline here and this made me feel a little less inadequate. I had a look at botching it by going straight down off the spits I had already rigged, including a few naturals on the way, but there was nothing that gave a hang I was prepared to use. We, therefore, turned around very reluctantly only half-way down a fabulous cave - very frustrating but a superb trip nonetheless. Postscript: A quick look in Des Marshall’s book afterwards showed that his rigging suggestion involved going straight down off the 3 spits I had found and ignoring all the rub and water in the process … not my idea of fun!! Must go back with either a bolting kit or an indestructible rope and a hood!
Party: Damian & Fiona Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford, Andy ClarkTime: 6hrs (incl. 1 hr of faffing at the pitch!)
Tuesday 19th August - Grotte des Ramats (Robin)
This one proved to be a real gem – and quite unexpectedly so. I’d selected it simply on the grounds that it had no pitches, wasn’t too far away, was near the road and probably quite easy to find. A pretty good bunch of reasons now I come to think of it. This was a day when the troops were generally uninspired and pretty well everyone came to my cave. The exception was Damian and the result of that was a Damian-class meal awaiting us on our return – if you’ve been on one of our holiday trips you’ll know what that means and will already be salivating at the thought. The entrance was, as promised, only a few minutes from the car – a low entrance at the top of a dry stream bed into a sandy chamber which would make a really good camp spot if it were ever needed. From there a short crawl led to well-decorated walking passage and a fixed 5m ladder. This proved to be a sort of via-ferrata ladder, drilled into the rock at a sufficiently awkward angle to make us decide to lifeline it on the way down. More nice walking passage brought us into a dry meander. This is one of those difficult to translate French caving terms – if you’ve seen one you know what it is. Think twisty narrow stream passage with lots of ups and downs, a fair bit of traversing and rock more like the Mendips than South Wales and you won’t be too far off. Meanders are fun because they involve proper caving, albeit of a slightly different nature to what we’re used to. This one started life as a dry meander and (after we’d gone a long way upstream) became an active streamway, which we followed upstream to the sump, after about a kilometre of caving. Apparently the sump is sometimes open, more than doubling the length of the cave, but water levels were high after the rain of the previous week and we were unable to get through even if we’d wanted to (after all, this was a holiday). To get there had required us to pass a succession of awkward climbs of 5m and under, some of which needed our novice as an excuse to use a handline. A really nice trip though and, I think, one which was enjoyed by all.We split up after the trip with Fiona and Sam driving back to find a pumpkin and turn into mountain bikers and the rest of us becoming hikers. We started off by looking for and finding the entrance to Pot du Loup and descending to the Herbouilly meadow then Mike & Jennie turned left onto a circular route to the edge of the plateau (for what they later described as a fantastic view) and back to the car whilst Susanne and I turned right to take a longer walk over the Pas de Sambue, with a detour to the top of La Sambue, and down the other side. The expected good views failed to materialise but we impressed ourselves by getting back to the gîte at exactly the same time as the car.
Party: Fiona Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford, Susanne Vetter, Jennie Lawrence, Robin WeareTime: 3h 30
Wednesday, 20th August – Scialet de la Fée Anglaise/Scialet Joufflus (Damian)
With reasons not to do pretty much every cave in my list, we finally settled on the Scialet de la Fée Anglais with Scialet Joufflus as rigging practice for Skeggy. This would give Andy a chance to visit the Joufflus, Jennie some more SRT practice and the rest of us a gentle, lazy day!I rigged down and we had an uneventful, but pleasant trip to the bottom, where we took it in turns to hang on the end of the rope and look at the deep and clear lake before turning around. Once again, “The Sun” proved amazing here, easily piercing at least 15m down into the lake. Party B completed both caves, Party A were less enthusiastic, leaving Sam to derig the Joufflus on his own.
Party A: Damian & Robin Weare, Sam Clifford, Jennie Lawrence
Party B: Fiona Weare, Mike Skegg, Andy ClarkTime: various, but not long.
Thursday, 21st August – Le Tapinoir (Damian)
The guide-book described everything in this entrance as “magnifique”, so I was very interested in going. I remembered that, on a previous visit, I hadn’t been very impressed and we’d had a long walk involving lots of blundering around looking for the entrance. However, I think that was to the alternative Glacière entrance and remember that the other party on that occasion walked straight to the cave. We’d popped over on a quick recce the previous evening to check that we could find the entrance and, more importantly, that there was still enough ice left in the entrance for us to reach the spits to rig. We found the entrance with no problem and ascertained that, although there was almost no ice, Sam was tall enough to reach a set of spits and we could probably then botch a deviation that would get us down the entrance pitch safely. As a result of this recce, we went straight to the cave and can report that the walk is actually quite a gentle one and signposted! Unfortunately, while carrying Fiona’s rucksack down the large entrance doline, I slipped on a rock and bashed my thumb. The ice in the entrance soon managed to reduce the swelling, though, and within a few minutes I was able to wield a spanner and load my descender. A highly botched deviation on the entrance pitch got us, via a squeeze, to the head of the P59. After initially going the wrong way and then re-rigging the “correct” way, we touched down in a large chamber that reminder me of the Marble Steps Main Chamber. This led almost immediately to a knee-knocking P41 – a perfect free-hang that got bigger and bigger the further you went down – superb and probably the most impressive dry pitch I have every descended. A pleasant, but slightly thrutchy meander then led to another nice P28. As it had a bit of water going down it, it was almost like a Dales’ pitch. A bit of passage, a climb up and a wriggle back down led to some dodgy spits (the first of the week!) and an improvised rebelay saw us at the bottom. Nothing for it but to turn around and head out, noticing as we went the obvious pair of good spits 1m from my botched rebelay!! A depth record for Sam at something over 200m.
Party: Fiona & Damian Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford Time: 4hrs
Friday, 22nd August – Grotte du Berger & Scialet Michellier (Damian)
Now we’ve all heard of the Berger, but the Grotte du Berger is somewhat smaller than its namesake. Intended for Susanne, our novice visiting from Germany, in the event only Skeggy, Sam, Fiona and I made it along the scree track to the entrance - Robin, Jennie and Susanne saw sense and turned back at various points along the way. I always find it interesting to go into caves without having seen a survey and this proved no exception. A series of about 10 chambers along one huge rift, split by either boulder piles or short wriggles, led via a short, descending slope to a tiny streamway. This in turn dropped down a decidedly not-free-climbable 4m climb. Fortunately this continued over the top in a fossil passage which we explored in all directions before each closed down. A pleasant and quick trip that was made all the better by having no idea of what to expect. A look at the survey later showed that we explored well beyond the ends of the survey in the book. I’d like to say that the day’s highlight was the caving, but on this occasion it definitely wasn’t. It seems that having turned back early, Robin, Jennie and Susanne had decided to go for a walk. Unfortunately, though, Jennie’s clothes were in my car so she decided to “borrow” Skeggy’s. This left us rolling around laughing when, having taken off his furry and standing in a large and open carpark in his pants, Skeggy realised he had nothing to put on. Once we’d had our amusement Fiona donated him some of her clothes and we were on our way again, this time to the Scialet Michellier. It was almost like being on Mendip … a lidded entrance smack bang in the middle of a field only a 1 minute walk from the road. Fortunately, unlike on Mendip, the weather was lovely. My thumb was still hurting from my antics in the Tapinoir doline the previous day, so Skeggy rigged the entrance series. None of the pitches were very exciting but they served a purpose and quickly got us into large and, unusually for France, taped passage. A few yards along and a prusik up the fortunately well-fixed rope led to the Salle Sophie with some pretty good formations and, perhaps the best part, an immense false floor at the top of the pitch up. A swift exit, a pleasant change and a short walk took us home.
Party: Damian Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford Time: 1hr (Berger), 2hrs (Michellier)
Sunday, 24th August – Scialet Vincens (Damian)
I think it’s fair to say that the main reason for us all going out to the Vercors at the time of the conference was the offer of pre-rigged caves. This was to be our first one and we didn’t really know what to expect. Would the rigging be dodgy? Would there be hoards of slow cavers turning a quick trip into a nightmare?We arrived at the entrance about 2mins after our allotted descent time and, after I’d got worryingly excited by a knot I’d never seen before, we set off. All was going swimmingly with good, solid rigging and nice, airy hangs and it was looking like we’d get down the 300 or so metres to the bottom in under an hour. Then I smelled carbide in a short meander and, just around the corner, came across a group of French moving fairly slowly. Suddenly we all bunched up and the trip became quite sociable as we had plenty of time to chat at the top and bottom of each pitch. At the end of the big, open section the French group stopped for a huge looking French meal and we went past to the end of the pre-rigged section. I had a look in the apparently “grotty crawl” beyond and it wasn’t actually too bad, but the rigging stopped so I turned around and came back up telling the others to turn around when I met them. As luck would have it, the French group had just finished their meal and were slowly prussiking up in front of us... so a slow exit it was to be! We emerged a little too late for the walk I had hoped to go on and ended up doing a little circuit to the top of the Moulin Marquis canyon on the way home instead.
Party: Damian, Fiona and Robin Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam CliffordTime: 4 hrs
Monday 25th August, Scialet du Tonnerre (Damian/Robin)
This was our second attempt to make use of the pre-rigged caves. The Tonnerre was high on our list because at -560m it would be a genuinely long trip to rig and derig ourselves in the future. We also reckoned that most people would probably be building up to the deeper caves as the week progressed and getting one in early would make it less busy. In the event we followed the almost traditional pastime when French caving and blundered about on the side of a mountain in the full sun for about 2 hours before finally coming across the entrance. By this point we were all fairly well beasted and very happy to sit down for a few minutes. Unfortunately, though, we still had a 500m deep cave to do! The 2 Spaniards who had arrived a few minutes before us set off and we followed on 10 or so minutes later, trying hard to keep a big enough gap to avoid kicking anything loose down onto them. [Damian) I should admit at this point that when I reached the car park I realised that I’d forgotten my undersuit. That this wasn’t deliberate is proved by the fact that I returned to the gîte to collect it and set out for the cave only about an hour behind the others. My amended plan was to descend until I met them coming out and then return with them. I also had some difficulty finding the entrance and reached it after an hour of hunting just as I was about to give up and climb the Pic St Michel (which loomed above) instead. Imagine my surprise when I turned a corner and found my long lost caving team about to descend. I let them go ahead and had started to change when the next team arrived. They were doing much better than the rest of us having only gone about 45 minutes past their allocated start time. The result was that instead of three parties entering with hourly gaps we all went in as a procession. [Robin] The entrance series was reasonably technical with jagged rock and a seemingly infinite collection of possible routes. Thanks to the fixed rigging, though, we did not have to worry about this and we able to fly through with ease. The rigging in the Tonnerre was, by the way, superb and, although there were some less impressively rigged caves as the week went on, this rigging job made me very impressed … it would have genuinely taken me hours to do anywhere near as good a job! Some big, airy pitches followed and dropped you quickly from about -150 to -300, where we had a sit down and a regroup. From here two alternatives exist... a P130 or a much nicer sounding series of shorter pitches which they’d fortunately decided to rig! Jon and Robin’s lights appeared in the ceiling and, a few minutes later, they too touched down in the Salle à Manger. Jon was booked in for the Berger the next day, so he sensibly decided to call it a day here and, with Robin, began the climb to the surface. The rest of us carried on down, rapidly losing height via a P54, P30, R3, P10, P10, P30 and P15 bringing us quickly to the Collecteur at the bottom. All the way we’d managed to keep a sensible gap between us and the Spanish pair in front almost without needing to try. We seemed to be moving at a very similar pace and I could just see their lights disappearing along the master cave as I came down the last pitch. We then met them returning about half-way along the master cave and they had just cleared the first few pitches back up when we returned … perfect timing. An uneventful but very enjoyable exit followed in which I got a bit carried away and decided to prusik quite quickly, getting out from -500 in 2hrs 20mins. A fantastic way to spend my birthday with huge thanks to the Jérôme who I understand rigged the cave.
Party: Damian and Robin Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford, Jon HoldenTime: 5 – 6 hrs [Damian]
La Petite Moucherolle & Grande Moucherolle (Fiona)
This was the day when a walk became too tempting. The cave sounded good, but I wasn’t feeling energetic enough to prussic that far, particularly after a lengthy walk to find the place. I think everyone had looked at the ridge behind the gîte and been temped to explore (albeit via the cable car) but only Andy’s group had managed to get up there. In a moment of madness I decided to go on a circular walk from the gîte: about 15km and 1,300m ascent. The first part felt quite mad as it was straight up a steep ski run and although the sun was hiding in the clouds it was baking hot and airless. At the top of the ski run it dawned on me that I’d climbed about ¾ of the height, it hadn’t actually taken that long and it was now much less steep and there were even some nice views back down the valley. Then, as I neared the top, the cloud descended and it felt like another world. Still, there at the top of a ski lift was a sign telling me I had arrived at the top of La Petite Moucherolle (2156m). I sat on the convenient bench outside the refuge and had some lunch only for the cloud to clear and show that the real top was 200m away. Oh well. The real top was much better and I briefly got to see the view. If you don’t already know this ridge drops fairly steeply down towards the Vercors plateau about 1,000m below – that’s not quite true, the top section is steep but the lower slopes are much friendlier. On the other side the ridge is actually a cliff; I’m not sure how much of the drop is vertical cliff before it becomes steep slope but the total height is around 2,000m and I didn’t get to see any of it! There was cloud all the way up to the top of the cliff and a great view over the top of it to the Alps. As I approached the top of La Petite Moucherolle I was a little concerned by the verticalness of the towering Grande Moucherolle (2284m). There is a marked route on Robin’s map, but on my newer version it no longer exists and none of the signs implied that I could get there. Still this is France and the French walk everywhere with their pots of paint. True it consisted of climbing down one cliff and up the next, but there were comforting blue paint splodges all the way. For some reason I was expecting the summit to be spacious, the type of place you’d find French families having picnics, so I was very surprised to find it was reminiscent of Crib Goch, only more rugged and certainly more vertical - fantastic, but still no view of the drop. The route down the far side was also quite a scramble, which probably explained the lack of other walkers up there. And I descended into ski heaven – well it would have been had I been there on skis in February (maybe). On foot it was a nightmare as the new ski runs aren’t on the map and, assuming you are tall enough to read the signs without several meters of snow to help, without a ski guide you have no idea which run you want to follow. An hour later (and only a few km further) I was very fed up of the rough gravel ski runs and very glad to locate my footpath running off into the trees, proper walking at last. All in all a very satisfying day’s walking and still back in time for lunch.
Tuesday, 26th August – Trou d’Ira (Damian)
The morning began slowly as we weren’t booked into the Trou d’Ira until the afternoon. After a leisurely breakfast Sam, Skeggy and I did some surface SRT rescue training in the sun while the others, I think, lazed around reading books. The Trou d’Ira was intended to be another opportunity for Jennie to practise her SRT and a new cave for the rest of us. A fairly short walk up a horrible ski slope brought us to the obvious and marked entrance. Skeggy dropped down first and called up to Jennie warning her about the exceptionally short rebelay loops. This made Jennie’s life quite tricky as she had to learn to remove braking krabs before reaching rebelays and to dispense with locking off at all... a bit nasty when you’re still at the stage of doing everything “by the book” but she coped well. Met several French-speaking Canadians, an American and some of the people we were staying with at the bottom of the entrance pitch and soon got the message that the Trou d’Ira was maybe a bit disappointing! We went on past some more “interesting” rigging and a few Mendip-style rifty thrutches and unconventional pitch heads before turning around before Jennie lost all confidence in her ability to do SRT. Sorry Jennie! All was made up for once more in the evening at the 3D-film session … if you ever get a chance to see anything by Daniel Chailloux, then jump at it. It was what can only be described as “stunning”. Somehow, though, Robin managed to fall asleep during it … a disgrace!
Party: Damian, Fiona and Robin Weare, Mike Skegg, Jennie LawrenceTime: 3hrs
By Robin (I don’t like SRT trips) Weare
This is the alternative to Damian’s trip report. I know he got in first but I just have to say that I enjoyed this cave. I really cannot understand why everyone else in the cave that day seems to have hated it. Yes, it was tight and awkward but as far as I was concerned it was the nearest thing to proper caving in a vertical cave that I’ve ever come across and that was good. I managed to get in ahead of the crowd and so missed most of the 15 person snarl up on the entrance pitches, going on to the bottom as a solo trip and I’m sure that helped.Anyway don’t be put off – I think it’s worth a visit, albeit only if it’s been pre rigged. The first 3D film was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the second was OK and the third was the third so by then I was perhaps a little bit bored. Maybe I was a little bit influenced by having taken a glass or two with dinner. Whilst I admit to having rested my eyes once or twice (as my grandmother used to say in similar circumstances) I’m sure I didn’t fall asleep. [Robin] I can’t believe Robin called this “fun” and “real caving”. Where’s the fun in squeezes with an SRT kit jabbing in your leg, stomach etc????? It wasn’t as tight as he implied when he met me, but it certainly wasn’t as fun either. I can only conclude that he actually likes SRT when allowed to go at the pace of his choice.[Fiona] Fortunately I had the foresight to see that this was one caving trip I was happy to leave out. So instead had a leisurely walk to the cave with the others before heading off for a stroll up to the ridge above the cave they were descending. This gave me an opportunity to see what an outstanding area it was we were in and see how close we were to Grenoble on the other side. A satisfying walk along the ridge to the peak above to Tonnerre before descending past this and ending up at the conference via the internet café (had to get my fix for the week). After getting the radio for the translations of the 3D films it quickly became apparent that I understood more by listening to the French version than English translation of the films despite my impeccable French![Sam]
Wednesday, 27th August – Pot du Loup (Damian)
Another day for Jennie to practise SRT and another new cave for the rest of us. While we were changing a party of Frenchmen pulled up. They had obviously not booked the cave and looked a little embarrassed when asked. We continued changing and walked to the entrance. I believe the entrance pitch is left permanently rigged and is used by the French Caving School and it is easy to see why... a pitch with an almost infinite set of rigging options with a large viewing platform on the other side to watch, advise and criticise. Add to this a non-vertical exit at the bottom of the pitch and a short walk back to the top of the pitch and you have an almost perfect training venue. Anyway, we popped down the entrance pitch and up the short rope to the continuation of the pitches. A large pitch liberally coated in slimy moonmilk on the bottom half led to a not particularly helpfully rigged final pitch into a nice chamber. We about turned and prussiked out, Jennie showing how impressive she is becoming by almost flying up the 37m free-hang on the second pitch and ably coping with some less than helpful fixed rigging. Realising, on exiting, that I hadn’t really enjoyed the trip at all, I knew that I was “caved out” for the day and wasn’t going to appreciate anything, however good it was and decided against the Gour Fumant we’d booked into for later in the day. Instead I spent the afternoon playing with various SRT scenarios with Jennie in the gîte garden.
Party: Damian, Fiona and Robin Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford, Jennie Lawrence Time: 2hrs
Thursday, 28th August – Scialets Neufs (Damian)
When you pre-book a rigged cave they give you an “information sheet”. There were some interesting warnings given on the information that accompanied this cave about very technical SRT and extremely cold conditions, so we were eager to see what Scialets Neufs had to offer. Once we’d decided to follow the red and white tape rather than the map we’d been given, a 15-minute stroll took us straight to the entrance; I did a bit of faffing with my light before setting off. In the event there was nothing technical at all with the rigging looking much more “British” than some of the other rigging we’d seen that week. I very quickly got down to the “Salle des 40 ans” at -350ish and, after a bit of ferreting around, determined that they hadn’t rigged the alleged muddy bits beyond. We all turned around, having first admired the stal that was on offer in the chamber, and once again enjoyed the airy and pretty series of pitches that followed. Out in no time, giving me enough time to dry my oversuit and furry in the sun before the others emerged 20 minutes or so later. An excellent end to a very good fortnight. Many, many thanks to the French for some superb organisation.
Party: Damian and Robin Weare, Mike Skegg, Sam Clifford Time: 3hrs
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