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Coves del Passant del Faig

Coves del Passant del Faig

Two small caves near the border, N of Beget (Alta Garrotxa), 700 m NW of coll de Malrem and 220 m from France, near the Passant del Faig.

Camprodon • Ripollès 24m 10m

Two small caves near the border, N of Beget (Alta Garrotxa), 700 m NW of coll de Malrem and 220 m from France, near the Passant del Faig.

Characteristics

Location

700 m NW of coll de Malrem and 220 m from the border with France, within the natural region of Alta Garrotxa. Only 12 m from a natural passage known by the name of 'Passant del Faig', which like a gap allows crossing a limestone ridge.

To get there, we will take the road towards Beget and one kilometre after having passed Rocabruna the road crosses the torrent de les Arçoles, where there is a space to leave the car. On the other side of the road a path starts that in about 50 minutes should bring us to the coll de Malrem, which borders France. From the col we can already see the rocky ridge towards which we must head, following a narrow and steep path. The path crosses the ridge through the passant del Faig and just immediately we will see on the right a small depression where the mouth of the cova del Passant del Faig opens. The cova Petita is 10 m to the East, at a slightly higher elevation. A little more than 100 to the West of the caves there is a characteristic limestone outcrop known by the name of 'Roc del Tabal'. From the car to the caves a height difference of the order of 400 m must be overcome.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Coves del Passant del Faig

    Elevation: 1297 m

    42.344249, 2.473897
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 456665 4688133
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Coves del Passant del Faig - Photo, Camprodon, RipollèsView image
Click to enlarge

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

Image 1 of 9

Description

Morphology

The cova del Passant del Faig is found in a small depression of the terrain between three beautiful beech trees. The mouth is one metre wide by about 65 cm high. The general direction of the cave is parallel to the cliff of the ridge, which is a few metres away. These are, then, cavities of the type that have come to be called 'tectonic'. The dominant morphology is clastic and the fractures and joints of the rock are clearly visible.

The cova petita has a much smaller mouth, often half covered by leaf litter, but it opens immediately into a small room about 5 m in diameter with a sloping floor from which a couple of short galleries emerge.

Progression

The mouth is one metre wide by about 65 cm high, giving way to an easy drop of a couple of metres. A few metres further on we will climb down over some blocks and find ourselves at a fork. To the left it ends soon, at three metres, and to the right we will have to crawl about 4 metres until reaching a narrow passage on the other side of which the cave continues through a joint-shaped gallery, narrow but passable, which goes deep generating a vertical. An acoustic sounding (euphemism meaning 'throwing a stone') allows us to make an estimate of its depth -we believe conservative- at around 7 m.

The continuation of the exploration remained pending, but this was done in September 2025 by Nil Hosta and Tanit Sanmartín who descended the final little shaft where the cavity ends.

History

Located by Josep Maria Casals (Centelles) around 2021, during an excursion along the border ridge with France, between the coll de Vernadell and the coll de Malrem. He told Ferran Cardona of the find and he, together with Carme Bañolas, in November 2023 went on an excursion in the area and were able to locate the mouths.

It was not until the end of 2024 that Carme and Ferran returned again and were able to carry out the exploration and the cataloguing tasks.

Before posting the record on Espeleoindex, their colleagues Nil Hosta and Tanit Sanmartín had been to the cavity (September 2025) without knowing anything about the first exploration. They descended the final little shaft and made a sketch of it, confirming that it ended right there.

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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 6-1-2025. Dades: Ferran Cardona i Carme Bañolas (ECM Barcelonès)



Croquis tram final i fotografies de les dues cavitats facilitades per Nil Hosta i Tanit Sanmartin (novembre 2025)

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