| 122 | Ufoschacht | 3/S = |
|---|---|---|
| (=Gouffre Ovni) |
Altitude: 1520m
Location: Plagitzergrube, NE of
Hangender Kogel. This puts it quite close to
Trunkemboldschacht, 1626/117
(which is 90m higher) and also near the path.
Description adapted from the references by Andy Waddington. This translation has not been vetted by a fluent french reader, and I'm afraid it shows rather badly in places.
The entrance consists of a crack about 20cm high, which was at first cleared as far as a chamber with no exit. The draught which had enabled the entrance to be found now showed the way on. After having unblocked a fissure dubbed Sas, a pitch, Escalier Anti-G, was reached. This is broken in five places. A second pitch, Puits Andromède, broken into three, leads to a short canyon, then to several drops and pitches interspersed with short squeezes. The following pitches can be seen as forming a single 80m shaft, the Puits Ganimède, divided into five and becoming bigger and bigger in depth as well as width. The cave continues by a fault rift two or three metres wide and 40m deep, Puits Trou Noir (The Black Hole). The early pitches are dry, but by this point, at -200m, the shafts are much wetter.
The explorers in 1977 started on the descent of a fine 60m pitch of constant shape, slightly sloping, Puits Zorglub. At the bottom of this is the only chamber of the cave : the Salle Galactique. Here the cave splits into two routes, the active and the fossil.
Downstream from the chamber a drop leads to a small chamber among boulders, the Love Nest. (No idea who ventured to call it this). Between the boulders a 20m pitch opens, immediately followed by a 25m pitch. In fact, the last 25m of descent drops between the walls of an immense aven to land on a flat gravel floor. A diagonal chimney leads to a trickle of water.
A fissure marks the start of the Méandre Anti-Matière, where one immediately rejoins the underground stream. This has an average flow of two litres per second but quite rapidly increases to 10-15 litres per second in flood. The first part of the meander is straight and interrupted by 3 small pitches and two drops. At the top of the first, in the roof, is the connection with the fossil system. Quickly, the meander becomes less amenable: high and narrow, it is plastered with mud (the anti-matter) which makes progress quite arduous. Three pitches of 5, 14 and 10m punctuate progress. This last, followed by a drop of 3m, gives access to a section of passage blocked by clay. At the end of this, the stream disappears into a fissure with tight impenetrable bends.
The main passage continues ahead as a quite large fossil branch. After some 50m, the draught goes into an earthy hole, the start of a big pitch of 70m in several stages, the Puits du Centaure.
Halfway down, the pitch is rejoined by the stream which is avoided by a parallel fossil shaft. There immediately follows another pitch of 55m, the Puits du Fond des Ages, totally wet and characterised by an elliptical cross-section and constant slope. At the bottom, the water is engulfed by a fissure about three metres long, followed by a tight meander which has not been pushed. This is the deepest point : -565m.
Upstream from the Salle Galactique, a window some metres high gives access to a good-sized passage (3x3m on average), the Méandre des Petits Hommes Verts (the Little Green Men's passage). One comes up against a climb of 3m at the base of which the trickle of water is lost into a meander cut below the fossil passage (see below). After a narrowing and a climb, the passage ends in boulders between which it is still possible to penetrate for a dozen metres.
Back in the meander below the fossil passage: this ends at the Puit de la Comète (discovered by the Gaumais), a 60m pitch, spray-lashed in its lower part by Le Pipi (the wee-wee). At the base of this pitch is the beginning of the Méandre des Mutants. This is a passage for masochists par excellence : low and tight, gear gets caught everywhere. It ends in a series of climbs and a 30m pitch joining the active system.
see reference 78-2008
Exploration: Discovered in August 1974 by D.Motte.
Entrance unblocked by Groupe Spéléo Alpin
Belge in 1975 and 76.
Explored in August 1976 by F.Dechany & J.C.Hans
(GSAB) to -201m
Pushed to -565m on a further GSAB trip 5th-29th August 1977.
References :
Index and overview of 1626.
Overview of area 1623
GSAB and associated groups
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