Gouffre des Chandeliers n°3

The cavity opens through a cave porch 2 metres high and 2 metres wide, beneath an enormous rock. From the start, a 1.5-metre step between two blocks leads to a small chamber 3 metres long and 2 metres wide, with an earthy, sloping and slippery floor; a narrowing with an unstable block precedes a new 1.5-metre step that gives access to a slightly rising passage 5 metres long and 1 metre wide, with no outlet.

At the foot of the 2nd step (-4.5), an opening enlarged by explosives, from which a cold draught rises, gives onto a 10 m vertical, narrow for the first 3 metres, then in a somewhat wider joint. The bottom of the joint (-15), oriented south-north, is 5 metres long and 1 metre wide at most at the base of the descent. Blocked at the southern end, it ends to the north in a constriction 1 m high and 0.30 m wide that opens into an immediate and marked widening of the joint: right after the constriction (-16), it reaches 5 m wide and then diminishes to 3 metres, for a height varying from 4 metres at the start to 15 metres. The floor consists of enormous blocks wedged above the void, as the stones tumble down at length through several openings. Descending immediately by one of them, one finds successively two levels of wedged blocks at -10 and -15; at the level of the first, the pinching of the joint towards the south is clearly visible, the second overhangs a void of about 65 metres.

The bottom (-101) is formed of scree and is 1 to 3 m wide. Towards the south, after 8 metres, one reaches the foot of a pile of rocks; a delicate 7-metre climb and a passage between large blocks lead to a narrowing of the joint, definitively choked. Towards the north, one descends following the sloping floor, then a 3-metre step and a short rise quickly lead to the 1971 terminus (-111), where a dig had been attempted and quickly abandoned in a shaft beginning choked by scree and from which the cold draught rises. a few metres before, above the rise, a 3 m climb gives access to a level formed of blocks through which there are several possibilities; the most convenient is a low passage, between blocks in fairly precarious balance, which leads to a 5-metre shaft that can be avoided by a narrow, scree-filled descent on the left. At its base, one finds again the bottom of the joint, a sort of fairly spacious gallery, for about fifteen metres. At the end, a new descent by climbing between the blocks and a vertical 5-metre step lead to the lowest point of the cavity (-121), choked by stones. In the gallery above, if instead of descending one continues, one can follow the joint, fairly narrow, for about thirty metres, to the terminal pinching, at -112.5.

In the joint, the walls were covered with rotten calcite that came away in large plates.

No active circulation; run-off during periods of rain or snowmelt.

The most convenient descent point is further on: one progresses in the joint from block to block, over 15 to 20 metres in length while descending 6 to 7 metres, to a sort of balcony or ledge that overlooks the void, beneath a vault of blocks wedged above one's head. a 78-metre vertical, with 4 re-belays, in the joint which narrows to 1 or 2 metres.

Geology: Urgonian limestones of the Aptian. Like practically all the cavities of this sector, the gouffre des Chandeliers n°3 develops at the expense of a detachment fissure (relaxation of the cliff, call of the void). Its distance from the edge (about 40 metres) explains why the fissure is not open to the air. In fact, the end of the cavity (down to the bottom of the P 10) has the appearance of an ordinary hole. Note that the low point is distinctly lower (at least 70 metres) than the foot of the cliff, which makes the origin of the air draught rather mysterious.