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la Saiola

la Saiola

Important surgència temporal, Serra de l'Obac.

Vacarisses • Vallès Occidental63m22m

Temporary spring in the Serra de l'Obac, known since time immemorial. The entrance, about 2 metres high, gives access to a 4.5-metre shaft and to galleries exceeding 160 metres of estimated passage.

Characteristics

Location

From kilometre 13.75 of the B-122 road from Terrassa to Rellinars, a wide track leaves to the right towards the house of la Boada. Once the riera de Rellinars has been crossed for the first time, at the point where the font de Carlets is found on the left, one reaches a small flat area on the right of the track (la Feixa del Gram). Once past this point we continue along the first fork to the right, which leads to the old house of la Calsina. One must follow it for a little more than a kilometre and we will see that the track widens slightly and on the left-hand side there are the remains of an old charcoal kiln. From this point a path descends to the riera and leads to the very entrance of la Saiola.

Shortly before arriving, on the left of the track, there are two small entrances that lead to what is called the Avencó de la Saiola, which for the moment we have chosen not to catalogue.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Saiola, la

    Elevation: 462 m

    41.635267, 1.946367
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 412243 4609818
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

la Saiola - Photo, Vacarisses, Vallès OccidentalView image
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Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

Image 1 of 4

Description

Morphology

The entrance, about 2 metres high, leads within a few metres to a very narrow point that gives way to a 4.5-metre shaft. From here, a 2-metre drop takes us to the bottom of the shaft, entirely covered with very fine sand and with the rock walls completely smooth due to the action of water. An 8-metre ramp brings us to a small passage that must be crossed by crawling and that penetrates 15 metres, at which point the gallery widens a little more and the floor is again covered with sand and where, normally, the cavity remains closed. This point is a sumping passage which, when it can be cleared, allows access to a series of stepped conduits and galleries that climb up between narrows and ascending passages totalling more than 160 metres of estimated passage and which have rarely been explored; we know of only two explorations.

Vertical range: 58 m. (- 11 / + 45). Survey data to be revised, based on sketches from 1955.

More recent data (2004): Vertical range: 22 m (- 13.5 / + 8.5). Passage: 63 m.

Hydrology

la Saiola, when it flows, is quite a spectacle. The water comes out of the ground and at times it has such force that it even bubbles. Of all the temporary springs in the area, it is the one that discharges the most water to the outside. The water is collected within a few metres by the torrent of the same name. When it discharges a lot of water to the outside, it has another hole that serves as an overflow, located about 10 metres higher up and impenetrable.

History

Despite being known since time immemorial, the first speleological news we know of are the explorations carried out during the month of February 1955 by members of the GES – CMB (Delegació a Terrassa) and they remained practically forgotten, even though at that time they were able to explore a series of galleries that they calculated at 186 metres of development and that afterwards remained covered by sediments at the lowest point of the cavity, as the GE Badalona and the SIS – CE Terrassa were able to confirm when they worked in the area during 1974.

It is not until August 2003 that Marc Anglès (SIS) is able to pass the sumping passage of la Saiola and verify that, as the GES people said in 1955, the cavity continued through a series of ascending galleries.

The spring of 2004 was very rainy and all the springs became active. On 2 October of the same 2004, different members of the SIS are able to enter again and reach the end of the cavity, searching for possible continuations and some hypothetical exit to the outside. Still, a short time later they make a second entry, checking survey data, from a survey which incidentally has still not been seen complete and cannot be compared with the 1955 sketch.

At the end of August 2024 our friend Salvador Vives (SIS) sends us the elevation of the 2004 survey. In it one can see how the passage that was impassable in 1974 was passed and the ascending conduits begin, where with great difficulties of progression they reached a totally impenetrable point.

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Bibliography

  1. Anglès, Marc; Monterde, Eva (2004).- “Dinàmica càrstica a la vessant sud-oest del massís de Sant Llorenç del Munt i serra de l'Obac”. Actes del 1er. Congrés Català d'Espeleologia: 135-144. Federació Catalana d'Espeleologia. Barcelona.
  2. Anglès, Marc; Monterde, Eva (2007).- “Les surgències del vessant sud-oest del massís de Sant Llorenç del Munt i serra de l'Obac”. Arxiu del Centre Excursionista de Terrassa (113): 199-212. Terrassa.
  3. Cardona, F.; Miret, F.; Salvador, F. (1979).- “Las surgencias del 'Torrent de la Saiola' (Serra de l'Obac)”. Cavernas (21): 3-43. Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona.
  4. Freixes, A.; Monterde, M.; Cervelló, J Mª (1983).- “El paleocarst i el carst actual de les serres de Sant Llorenç del Munt de l'Obac. El carst experimental de Rellinars”. 57 pp. Espeleo Club de la Unió Excursionista de Sabadell.
  5. Vives, Salvador (1978).- “Les fonts intermitents de la Serra de l'Obac”. SIS (6): 12-26/Arxiu del Centre Excursionista de Terrassa (16): 580-594. Terrassa.

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