Foux de la Vis - 2017

Team: Manuel, Florian, Steffen, Marc, Tobi, Max

Guests: Thomas, Zeljka

This time our journey took us again to the Foux de la Vis, which we already explored in 2010.  The Vis is located in the French department of Gard in the picturesque Cevennes National Park.

The goal was for everyone to get into the water and for the Push Dive Team consisting of Tobi and Thomas to further explore the approximately 3 km of explored cave with a maximum depth of about 105 meters.

Especially interesting is the part of the cave around 1800m where the passage suddenly lifts up and turns away to the north towards Vis. One would expect a continuation in the south or southwest direction.

1st day approach

After a long drive of over 10 hours, we reached the mountain village of Brissac in the evening and moved into our accommodation.

Immediately the grill was fired up and plans for tomorrow were made. Setting the habitat was to be our goal tomorrow.

The team consisting of Thomas and Max should check on 9 m if they can drill four or ideally eight holes for the habitat.  Since the cave entrance is very narrow, we could not use a normal habitat but the collapsible habitat had to be used. This is different than the fixed habitat, not attached to the ceiling but requires a correspondingly good attachment in the wall / floor.

Marc explained to the team in detail the use of the brought air drills, with which the drilling under water should be very easy.

Day 2

The rainy morning and the rain of the days before, made us doubt whether the conditions on site would be the best. Nevertheless, we were not discouraged and packed our equipment and so we left around 8 am with our four fully loaded vehicles to Foux de la Vis, about 30 km away.

Upon arrival, we loaded our luggage for the dive team and set off on the long and arduous walk to the cave, which we had to do a few times. We reached the cave of the Foux de la Vis after a 30 min. uphill walk on a narrow path, partly overgrown by bushes. Once there, the equipment was first temporarily stored in front of the cave. The entrance of the dry area was very narrow and had to be overcome on all fours with helmet. After a short piece partly in a stooped position was immediately inspected the narrow cave entrance pool and with horror we had to realize that this was blocked by a large boulder.

After much deliberation, we decided to turn this boulder so that its shape would fall into the narrow cave entrance pool, and thus eventually into the water.

After initial attempts with hammer and chisel, we quickly switched to chain and rope. Marc kept giving the commands to pull, but unfortunately the chain kept slipping off the stone. We persevered and managed to turn the stone around its own axis through strong teamwork. All that was missing was a "little push" in the right direction. Marc jumped on the stone and so the stone fell with a loud plop into the water, Marc behind. Fortunately, he was still able to hold on to the walls at the top.

A supposedly clear cave revealed itself to us. The team was happy and so we could finally bring the remaining equipment laboriously into the dry area, which also served as a camp.

Thomas and Max prepared for the dive and got their two Kiss ready for the dive. They should report how the flow is and check if/how it is possible to set the habitat at 9m.

Getting into the narrow cave pool proved difficult and was only possible by scrambling backwards into the water. In addition, the pool only had room for one diver.

Thomas and Max were in the cave for about 45 minutes. According to first reports, there was no need to drill, because at a depth of 9.5 m there were already five pitons in a crevice on each side. These seemed stable and could be used. At about 6 m, the old habitat was upside down on the ground.

After the narrow passage at about 10 - 15 m depth, the narrow passage turns into a large gravel dump. The first kink could be made out at about 15m. At 49m the line was broken at the edge (like a steep wall) and rolled up. Thomas took the end of the line in hand and fixed it at about 56m.

In total, the two were about 130 m into the cave. Unfortunately, the cave had a strong flow and the visibility was with 4 m ehr mediocre, since we had planned to dive in with scooters.

After the information that "refrigerator-sized stones" lay on the old line and these had come freshly down, we decided first of all to let the divers get out of the water and to discuss this information again in common round.

Therefore, we postponed setting the habitat and headed back. Meanwhile the rain became steadily worse and small water rivulets formed over the trails.

In the evening we drove to the village of Laroque on the Herault River, whose roads were partly flooded. Due to the increasing heavy partly pouring rain, we had to plan the next day's schedule. Since Tobi is the most experienced diver, it was decided that he and Thomas will go into the water tomorrow to check the current situation or whether diving will generally be possible at all.

Day 3

The morning presented itself to us with a cloudy sky and light drizzle. We packed for the team Tobi and Thomas and drove around 8 o'clock again to the Vis. With combined forces, the equipment was distributed among the present participants and carried up on another strenuous way.

Arrived at the cave pool, we saw a picture of devastation. Leftover material from the previous day lay crisscross in the cave. The level of the water has risen due to the persistent rain and partially flooded the dry part of the cave and thus the equipment in the room. Thus it was clear that due to the flooding the flow and visibility have deteriorated and so unfortunately no more diving will be possible.

In the cave pool were still two stages of Max and Thomas, which still had to be rescued. Thomas put on his dry suit and took a stage and mask with him. Since only the tough get into the garden, Max followed lightly dressed with swimming trunks. The rescue was successful, but unfortunately Thomas had torn his drysuit in the process, which didn't exactly help to lighten the mood.

After the final decision to break off, we packed up all our equipment and ran a few times to load it into the buses.

Arrived at the accommodation we lit the barbecue and decided to move out of our accommodations early the next morning and continue to the fun diving at Font Estramar, Goul du Pont and Goul de la Tannerie.

On site we had the best conditions with crystal clear water and so we could do some really good dives to finish the day.

Conclusion:

Challenge accepted. The cave still offers many undiscovered passages and many more TG will follow. We will be back.

In this sense,

Your Cavebase

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Video

In unserem Review-2017-Video sind ein paar Ausschnitte aus dem Vis-Projekt enthalten.