Forat de la Ruda

Large vertical entrance of about 3 by 2 metres which at its base, through a lateral opening, gives access to a small chamber where the first shaft begins (Pou Lluís Muntan) with a drop of 24 metres, of great beauty for the flags and flowstone that decorate it.

3 metres from the bottom, to the SE, is the entrance to a narrow crawl which gives access to the Pou Emili Bifet. Access to this shaft is made more comfortably via a balcony halfway down the first shaft, where the Capella Cristina is found; then, through a low passage, you reach an elongated gallery (les Bambolines) of about 12 metres where the plane of the E-W joint is evident.

At the N end of this gallery, via a 3-metre step and a window, you enter the head of an 8-metre shaft that reaches the Sala del By-pass (level – 27.36), also heavily decorated.

Once in this chamber, structured N-S and 2 x 8 metres, a large window opens onto the Pou Emili Bifet, of 24.5 metres. In front of this window and at the same height, the crawl that connects this shaft with the Pou Lluís Muntan, mentioned above, can be seen.

At the base of the Pou Emili Bifet (level – 53.83) various steps between blocks open up where different palaeontological remains have been found (bone and deer, among others): In the W part of the chamber there is a small drop of 2.5 metres that leads to a small chamber (Saleta Faviola) profusely and beautifully ornamented both on the walls and on the floor by coralloid formations (anemonites) and which you are asked NOT TO ENTER SO AS NOT TO DAMAGE THE PLACE.

Again at the base of the Pou Emili Bifet, to the SW a vertical and narrow conduit of 5 metres leads to a small chamber where at its base is the Estret de Berign (sic) where the Pou Boris-Yzaguirre begins, of 44 metres, divided at – 11 by a large platform of large wedged blocks, reaching its base at level – 97.72 m. (end of the primitive or normal route).

Located on the aforementioned platform and to the SW, among the blocks a narrow meander (Meandre de les Bessones) gives access to the beginning of a series of chained shafts (Pous encadenats d'en Pau i Siles), giving rise to a network of branches and derivations that are being explored, reaching on one side 193 metres of depth (Via Aconcagua) where the provisional maximum depth level is found, and on another side – 165 metres (Via Palermo-Buenos Aires) which originates at level – 98.

The authors of the survey have not made known the total length of the cavity. In a rather unacademic and totally estimative way we have calculated that it could be around 450 metres at least.

ATTENTION: It should be said that from the Meandre de les Bessones onwards the atmospheric conditions change radically due to the appearance of thin air with a progressive decrease in its quality as one descends, so the exploration must be carried out with the greatest precautions in order to avoid significantly uncomfortable and/or dangerous situations in the progression, according to each speleologist, always taking into account their physical and technical conditions.

In order to know and evaluate these conditions, it is recommended to get in touch with the GERS – AE Muntanya.