Emergénce de Gouron
Team: Irene Homberger, Max Fahr, Oliver Ober
In July, Irene approached us about a possible mixed cave tour in the Gouron. She had already dived there a few years ago, got out at siphon 1 and then continued dry in the cave. Since she had no SRT harness with her, it was then for her at the 1st rappel point end. Now, properly equipped with team and SRT ability, she wanted to explore the cave further. Max and Olli still had a small bill open with the Gouron, because during our last Jura trip on the 1st long October weekend 2018, an ascent, the cave draining in the river LOUE, could not take place due to an injury of Olli. At that time we both swore, WE will be back!
So on the first weekend in August it was finally time. Olli packed his things and invited Max together with his small equipment. Afterwards we drove via Zurich and Irene joined us. At about 01:00 o'clock we arrived Friday night in Mouthier-Haute-Pierre at the hotel La Cascade. The hotel is just a stone's throw from the Gouron in the beautiful LOUE valley. They were already waiting for us. To start our trip relaxed, we drove only around 9:30 am on Saturday to the parking lot directly at the source pot in the river.
We got our scuba gear ready and discussed our equipment to carry. In the end, everyone carried a drag bag. In it everyone had a rope, SRT harness, something to snack and drink. In addition distributed cordless screwdriver with spare battery, a bunch of pitons, hammer and appropriate open-end wrenches / box wrenches. The day was to get to know the cave first, to come as far as possible and on Sunday with adapted material, to expand the first advance. For this, the suit was crucial. We decided to put on long underwear under the dry suit. So it was warm enough in the water and afterwards to continue in the dry part of the cave. As diving equipment Irene used a D12 18/45 and a Stage 80cuft TMX 50/25. Max and Olli dived their JJ-CCR's with a Diluent 18/45 and a Stage 80cuft TMX 18/45 as bailout. At 24m we put down a 80cuft TMX 50/25. To quickly cover the 495m dive distance with a maximum depth of 55m, everyone used a scooter.
When we were finally in the water, we dived at 10:33. After 22min we had already reached the end of siphon 1. Only the fully packed sandbags acted like anchors that we had to drag behind us. We deposited the stages and scooters at the end of the line and put the diving equipment on the surrounding rocks. Right at the beginning of the dry area was a huge flat rock that provided the opportunity to move. The hall at the end of siphon 1 was about 15m wide and 20m high.
And now it started! Since Irene no longer had the exact course of the passage in her head after the years, we first looked for the continuing passage. After 3 attempts, in narrow crevices running out passages, we found the very varied continuing passage and the descent of the Gouron could start. Huge cuboid-shaped rocks left enough space to shuffle through. At a narrow crevasse we had to climb up 10m with spread legs until we came to the 1st rope. This had a very pitiful condition by now. We repaired it and were then able to climb about 5m down it. Like most of the passages, this one was at right angles to the course of the passage to the north. From the clay border we could guess the water levels at high water times inside the gouron. 5-7m difference to the current water level is certainly possible there. The karst of the cave changed from light brown to ocher, karst white to deep black, smooth washed out to very sharp edged. We followed the passage until we came to the 1st real rappel point. After a short inspection of the existing rope and improvement of the rope belay, we put on our SRT harness and Olli was the first to abseil about 15m.
Here was a small basin that we could crawl around dry on the side. On the way to our final stop today we passed a sintered sink. A really great sight.
At today's terminus was a prepared approx. 25m rappel point that ended in a deep water-filled pool. Unfortunately, we were not prepared for this today. But we used the time to set 2 more pitons. The existing ones didn't look trustworthy anymore. Olli set the pitons, tied a new rope and Irene and Max made a little peek at the bottom of the pool. Conclusion: we broke wet neoprene for the further descent! Back at the end of siphon 1 we put on our dry suits again. Only an empty abrasive bag went back with us. The rest of the hoses, ropes and SRT harness stayed in the Gouron. We put on the scuba gear and 16min later we were out of the cave.
Since the day was not yet over, we made a short detour to the nearby Source de Loue. The sight of the huge spring gate reminded us of a fantasy movie. Incredibly impressive what nature can create. Definitely worth a detour!
With the experience of the temperature while diving and because of the deep basin, we decided to put on the wet suit for the trip on Sunday under the drys. On the way there it was dry and the way back was short enough not to freeze. At the end of Siphon 1, we briefly unclipped our drysuits and we were on our way to the final station of the last day. We rappelled down and swam through the deep, water-filled passage further into the mountain.
We came to a 2.siphon, but this could be bypassed via a clay pile. Here the next real siphon was waiting for us. It was a pool with the dimensions of about 20 x 15m. As in the rest of the cave, everything was prepared. A mountain rope led through the 3rd siphon. Max put on his mask and headgear and made a short peek along the laid mountain rope. The crystal clear pool was clay-covered at the bottom and he slowly felt his way forward. So he could see the surface at 4-5m from siphon 3 even before diving down.
He pulled forward on the mountain rope after a strong breath. After 3 minutes he came back and reported the continuation. Olli copied him. So Irene could get an objective picture if she could do it. Since we had only taken a hood and mask with us, we used one of our ropes to make the dive through as comfortable as possible. One by one, we dove freely through siphon 3, leaving the abrasive bags at the edge of the pool. At the exit of siphon 3, siphon 4 was already waiting. Fortunately, there was a clay-covered dry bypass here as well. For this we pulled ourselves up the 5m high slope and slid secured with our last rope to the exit of siphon 4. Further we went along a long water filled passage. After about 15min of swimming it became dry again. So the descent alternated for the next 1000m. Swimming, dry further caving and some, prepared climbing passages made the cave very varied.
Until we came to siphon 5 swimming. Here were still remains of Caveline to find. Unfortunately our tour ended here. Max and Olli had another look at Siphon 5 going into the depth and exchanged ideas about a possible return to Siphon 5. Afterwards, the great team headed home. Here, everyone really pitched in and helped. 2000m of return lay ahead of us, which was done in no time, due to our enthusiasm for the Gouron. On our changing platform, we slipped into our drysuits with our wet wetsuits and packed our sanding bags. These were much fuller than the day before and lay in the water like 5 anchors while scootering. Still, it only took us 20min to get back.
With a river-cooled beer we let the two days pass in review and made plans, how we could get on at Siphon 5. A little tired because of the last 2 days we drove back towards the Swiss border.
A short video about the tour you can watch here.
Video
In this sense
Your Cavebase