De Galo

The mouth of the pit is a funnel hidden among the ferns, a veritable trap into which different animals have fallen for millennia. It is a 31 m vertical drop, capable of swallowing gigantic beech trunks, which after a low passage leads to a fine chamber formed at a crossroads of galleries incised along the bedding. From this chamber three directions open up: the ascending gallery "upstream", the dead gallery and the fossil route. To the right of the chamber opens an impressive ascending gallery that ends abruptly after a run of barely 200 m and which establishes the highest point of the cavity. At the back and to the left of the chamber, between blocks, a small vertical drop allows the fossil river route to be followed. At the bottom of the pit a small gallery of about 80 m is followed and ends without any continuation. At 8 m of descent it is possible to progress along the main meander, quite narrow at first (1.5 m), whose height coincides with the roof of the chamber; after overcoming a dead shaft of 12 m the gallery becomes defined and appears covered in flowstone until reaching a balcony with a fine column 10 m high. One descends by a flowstone ramp and continues along a large gallery with a sandy floor and numerous chimneys. From here on the cavity takes on its greatest dimensions and the flow marks become more evident. After a new semi-conical flowstone one reaches the only active gallery, which describes a 90° curve and up to 12 m in width; at the same curve a window appears that is none other than a small mud gallery with a couple of small chimneys. At this key point, common to three routes, a small vaulted chamber 15 or 20 m high has formed. Climbing to the upper balcony one finds a fine tubular shaft 48 m deep that reaches the deepest point of the cavity but leads nowhere. From the key point one progresses through a low passage full of mud after overcoming a dead shaft of 8 m, and advances along a large gallery with flowstone and large blocks that describes a good curve; here there is a small inlet and another dead shaft between blocks with a small hole that seems to continue but requires digging open. Further on the gallery seems to become horizontal; to the left a large side window is ignored that is none other than a narrow ascending meander leading to the balcony of the 48 m shaft. The gallery becomes quite horizontal and sandy in the most fossil part of the cavity. At a new crossroads, a large, very ascending gallery to the left leads again to the balcony of the shaft by way of a suspicious chimney. The abundance of chimneys and dead shafts seems to denote the existence of upper fossil levels or of an active lower level.

The ascending gallery shows clear flow marks and is currently covered by numerous flowstone and signs of fossilisation. In the most fossil part of the cavity speleothems abound, notably an area of small residual pools with their characteristic formations.

The only currently active gallery owes its character to a fine jet of water that appears on the right and ends up muddying the whole gallery.

If one continues along the main gallery after the new crossroads, a little more than a hundred metres of fossil galleries and abundant speleothems are traversed until reaching a fine terminal chamber, the end of explorations. Later efforts in this cavity should be directed at digging open or climbing that would allow the upper fossil levels or the active lower level to be reached.

This cavity, despite being so close to the track in a much-travelled area well known to cavers and mountaineers, has remained unknown until our days, perhaps because it is hidden by the undergrowth and is not a place of passage to anywhere. However, there was a rumour that the Catalans knew of a shaft on Mount Haitzegi. What the cavers of S.C. Aranzadi did not suspect when they located it in 1995 was that behind that fine shaft it connected with a veritable network of galleries, traces of a fossil river.