Gouffre de Champ Retard

The cavity begins with a shaft only 3 metres deep. It continues as a sloping gallery that opens into a small chamber. A crawlway gives access to the top of a meander.

Shortly before a constriction, two routes present themselves. The first leads to a first low point, at -27 m; by climbing between blocks, one ascends a shaft for about fifteen metres, whose exploration ends at its top at an impenetrable fissure, behind which hides a small chamber accessible elsewhere. The second route passes the constriction at the top of the meander explored from the entrance: behind it, one emerges into a first fairly spacious chamber, five metres in diameter. To the north, and behind a scree slope, a widening ends at the same impenetrable fissure that marked the end of the previous route. To the south, a gallery, interspersed with a low passage, allows access to a second chamber, of comparable size to the previous one. Beneath the blocks that clutter the floor hides a ten-metre shaft, severely guarded by a final constriction; it is at the bottom of this latter that the lowest point of the cavity is found, at -30 m.

The entrance to the meander is narrow and it is recommended to place a handline there to facilitate passage on the way in as well as on the way out. After passing this difficulty, one can visit a narrow meander, staying as close as possible to the ceiling. For the first route, one must slide in opposition towards the bottom of the meander. For the second, one must pass the constriction at the top of the meander explored from the entrance.

Source: Site du Spéléo club de Chablis > « Gouffre de Champ-Retard (89128 - Coutarnoux) » -- https://www.scchablis.com/Site/Speleo/Invent/89/89128/champ_retard.php

Geology: limestone of the Bathonian stage. Dogger period, Middle Jurassic System, Mesozoic era, also known as the Secondary era, from -167.7 to -164.7 million years.