Cigalera del Gireny
Ice-filled cavity, 46 m deep in the municipality of Alt Àneu.
EspeleoWorld
Cigalera del Gireny
Ice-filled cavity, 46 m deep in the municipality of Alt Àneu.
Alt Àneu · Pallars Sobirà
Length: 95 m · Depth: 46 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/cigalera-del-gireny
Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.
Ice-filled cavity, 46 m deep in the municipality of Alt Àneu.
Topographic
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Photos
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Description
Morphology
An important entrance 8 metres long by about 2 metres wide that communicates with a shaft of 30 vertical metres and that is normally plugged by a plug of snow and ice. When it can be passed, at its base a ramp begins that leads into a wide chamber with two chimneys. Before entering this chamber, on the right, there is a short ramp gallery that leads to a small shaft of about 8 metres and at its bottom, two impenetrable narrows mark the point of maximum depth (-46). Returning to the base of the entrance shaft and in the opposite direction, there is a short but steep ramp that leads to a small chamber full of blocks and with a chimney of imperceptible height.
History
Discovered in the summer of 1977 by the S.S.Plantaurel, who can descend only about 10 metres. The following year, after a long digging out of the ice plug, they manage to reach the final chamber. They assign it 58 metres of depth. In the summer of 1989, a team from the SIS finds the cavity with a considerably low level of snow, they can explore the whole of the French team's section and have access to a short new gallery at the bottom of the entrance shaft. The new survey that they make gives a maximum depth of 46 metres (at the same point that those of the SSP reached).
In one of the first notes (SIS-6), about the explorations in the massif, Joan Pallisé speaks of a cavity of about 60 metres of depth with an important snow plug, but erroneously calls it RC.1, when in reality it should have said RB.1
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Bibliography
Géraud, Ph. (1978).-'Massif de la Roca Blanca (Province de Lérida-Espagne)' L'Echo des Ténèbres (3): 6-9, S.S.Plantaurel
SIS-CET (1989).-Memòria campanya Roca Blanca 1989. SIS-CE Terrassa (inèdita)
Valles, Jordi de (2008).-'Alta Ribagorça, Pallars Jussà, Pallars Sobirà i Val d'Aran'. Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (vol.1):1-319. EC Gràcia / FCE.
Coordenades, dades i Fotografies facilitades per Joan Pallisé, juny de 2026.
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/