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Bauma de la Veta

Bauma de la Veta

Àmplia i bonica balma a Montagut i Oix (Garrotxa)

Montagut i Oix • Garrotxa36m0

A wide and beautiful rock shelter in Montagut i Oix (Garrotxa), with a mouth 27 m wide and 18 m deep, with speleothems including stalagmites, used by goats for shelter.

Characteristics

Location

On the left hydrographic slope of the riera d'Escales, raised about 50 m of drop above the streambed. About 160 m in a straight line to the WSW of the coll de la Veta.

Starting from Sadernes we will follow about 2 km along the track that goes up the riera de Sant Aniol until reaching a place set up for vehicle parking (Parking-3). Right here a path starts that crosses the riera to go up the other side until reaching the coll Roig, where we begin the descent along the other slope until reaching the streambed of the riera d'Escales. Now we must go upstream. Soon we will see on our right the cova de Coll Roig. We have ahead a long walk along the streambed of the riera, full of gravels, pebbles and large blocks that must be overcome. Thus we will reach a marked bend that the riera makes to the right. This bend is the southernmost point of the riera. About a hundred metres past the bend, the camí de la Veta, a narrow path, comes out on the right (hydrographic left). We will follow it, and when it begins to zigzag to go up to the coll de la Veta we will have to leave it towards the end of the second zigzag. We will leave it on the left to take a little-evident path that shortly brings us to a cliff that we will have to descend by a passage that allows doing so without difficulty. Then we must go downhill following the foot of the cliff. When the cliff turns left, we will follow it about 30 m more and we will reach the cavity.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Veta, Bauma de la

    Elevation: 362 m

    42.281872, 2.573384
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 464825 4681161
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Bauma de la Veta - Photo, Montagut i Oix, GarrotxaView image
Click to enlarge

Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

Image 1 of 7

Description

Morphology

It is a beautiful rock shelter with a mouth 27 m wide. The depth reaches 18 m, generating a wide chamber that is pleasant to be in. The height of the chamber remains between 6 and 8 m, in a large part of it.

To calculate the speleometry, we have considered the 18 m of depth of the chamber to which we have added another 18 m of the North gallery. Total, 36 m, but from end to end the cavity is 44 m.

Speleothems

The floor is quite concretionated with stalagmite massifs, although old and somewhat eroded. We also find some gour. Notable are some beautiful stalagmites on the south side, which because of their curious shapes were described by Joaquim Agustí as 'monoliths that vaguely recall human figures'.

Other details

The existence of goat droppings on the floor indicates that the rock shelter is used by these animals for shelter.

History

The rock shelter takes this name from its proximity to the coll de la Veta. The toponym 'Veta' we have sometimes seen written 'Beta'. For example, the ICGC map uses 'Veta', while the Alpina map uses 'Beta'.

The cavity has been known by local hikers for a long time. Thus, Joaquim Agustí i Bassols from Olot in his book 'Itineraris de l'Alta Garrotxa (II)' (year 1986) includes a chapter titled 'Coves i rieres' in which he refers to the existence of three cavities around the coll de la Veta.

This information is collected by Francesc Miret in his book 'Coves de l'Alta Garrotxa' (year 1999), including in the catalogue the cavity called 'Bauma sota la Veta', without further data.

Likewise, Jordi de Valles in his 'Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya' (Vol.3, year 2009) collects the information and catalogues the 'Bauma Sota la Beta'. Furthermore, he catalogues the 'Bauma de la Veta', of which he says that it is at the foot of a rock fissure, reproducing the data provided by Joaquim Agustí for the first of the three cavities he mentions. In reality, however, both catalogued cavities are the same cavity, the one we are dealing with now, and the one of the rock fissure must be another, almost certainly the Forat Negre, of which for the moment there is still no information available.

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Bibliography

Totes les dades, topografia i fotografies han estat extretes del web: geb.cat (del Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona). Apunt del 8-9-2025. Dades: Ferran Cardona (ECM Barcelonès)

Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/