On saturday 25th of June, a team of 5 Spanish cavers descended the "Tête Sauvage" - one of the many entrances of the Pierre Saint-Martin / Gouffre des Partages system - in an attempt to make the traverse towards the Salle Verna (Tunnel du Vent), a 7,7 km long underground trip with a height difference of 832 m .About one hour away from the bottom of the pits, the group splitted as 3 cavers were completely exhausted. The remaining two continued and raised an alert with "Spéléo Secours Français".
On Sunday, the cave rescue organisation was able to make contact with the three cavers, installed a base camp to reheat and replenish the Spanish cavers and started the rescue. Today all cavers exited without further incidents.
Source: SSF & La Republique des Pyrenées 1 & 2
 | The through-trips in this system are very nice and sporty. The best known is the SC3 to Salle Verna (9.1km; 987m difference in height). A good start is the guidebook "Spéléo sportive à la Pierre St Martin" by Michel Douat, Jean-François Pernette and Serge Puisais (in French). A nice compilation in English is available at the site of the Wessex caving club (here). |
There exists also an award winning video of the through trip called "A travers la Pierre" by Luc-Henri Fage.