Baume à Belard

The cavity takes the form of a fine succession of increasingly imposing verticals down to -120 metres, then a drop of a little less than 200 metres that is distinctly more sporting. At the base of this large vertical, two options present themselves: descend the small steps straight ahead to -166, or, at the base of the P43, commit to the premier boyau on the left. The verticals below have increasingly cramped dimensions and give access, at a depth of -305 metres, to a very narrow meander partly filled with water.

The small stream that plunges into a meander throws itself 10 metres further on into a 28-metre shaft in a joint.

Few difficulties in the first shafts for any caver who is a devourer of rebelays. After about fifteen metres of awkward progress, one arrives at a widening just after a small step. A cleared crawlway, still narrow, gives direct access to the R5. Take the short horizontal crawlway on the left side, at the base of the dripping chimney. Downclimb several steps interspersed with narrowings before arriving at the top of a series of two verticals of about ten metres. Be foresighted by placing two long deviations, because these shafts are a little watered and because of the rubs. The series of steps is stopped by the short crawlway “Oussama Fehmal”, widened (but not sufficiently for some…) a few days after the attacks of 11 September 2001.

Source: Comité Départemental de Spéléologie du Jura (CDS 39), La Baume à Bélard (Arsure-Arsurette): https://cds39.ffspeleo.fr/index.php/download?task=download.send&id=266:belard-pdf&catid=9

Online survey: the survey of the cave was put online in the archives of the EFS site: http://efs.ffspeleo.fr/archives/aout-06/fs06_topos/belard_g.jpg