Aven de la Mostela

The « Vélés-Vélés » shaft is 26 m deep; narrow at first, it widens rapidly at A ledge 9 m lower down, then abandons its vertical configuration for A rather inclined form down to the « bofado » chamber at elevation -29 m.

The « Jules Verne » chamber A has large dimensions (L = 40 m, W = 8 m, h = 5 m) and widens at its southern end, where A fine lake (average diameter: 7 m, depth 3 m) occupies the bottom of A sort of clay funnel.

The « Occités » gallery is about forty metres long and of fine section.

The « bofado » chamber A has A ceiling adorned with sabres.

Depending on the lake level, A slight temporary flow arises and is lost through an impassable passage at elevation -51 m.

After A few tens of metres of crawling in the friendly entrance meander known as the « Taï », one reaches the top of the « Vélés-Vélés » shaft.

From the « bofado » chamber, A 4-metre climb on A broad flowstone, followed by A short narrow passage, allows one to reach the base of A helicoidal « ascending aven », rising to level -4 m (the corkscrew chimney).

If one continues descending, A narrow passage at the bottom of the chamber leads into A second chamber taller than it is wide; from there, A vertical crawlway opens into the « Aganta Mostela » gallery (2.5 x 1.7).

At the end of the gallery, A narrow passage allows one to reach the base of A 12-metre chimney rising to elevation 25 m (the Pères Noël chimney). If one continues along the axis of the gallery, A severe narrow passage must be negotiated to reach the rest of the network; one then emerges into A small chamber, occupied for the most part by an intermittent gour. Then, A narrow crawlway on the left represents the last difficulty before reaching the vast « Jules Verne » chamber.

At the exit of the narrow crawlway, one can also take an immediate left to discover the « Occités » gallery.