Baume Novalets

La Baume des Novalets opens at the northern end of a vast "canyon" oriented NNE-SSW. In fact, rather than a canyon, it is a major tectonic fracture that caused a collapse over nearly 200 metres in length, a width of about 5 metres and a depth exceeding 15 metres in places. The cave itself has the same main orientation: it forms the underground continuation of the collapse.

The upper network: one enters the cavity by slipping between a few large blocks. One emerges into a straight descending gallery, two metres wide at the start, which narrows after about fifty metres.

The intermediate network: at the bottom of the scree slope, a passage at ground level leads to another level of galleries that intersect several times, almost always high and fairly narrow. One of the branches returns towards the south and ends in a boulder choke, beneath the surface canyon.

The deep network: the cavity continues in depth through a long joint. Two narrow openings lead to shafts and allow access to the deep level at -56 m.

Snow can also be found there very late in spring.