Ipuzmeaka I

The water sinks in a doline 12 metres deep among large blocks; because of its large size and vertical walls, there is usually snow. The cavity opens in Urgonian limestones. At the bottom of the doline two distinct verticals of about 10 metres open and join at the bottom. After a 2-metre-wide passage one reaches the meander in which the pit develops; in it the gallery is about 2 metres wide and the floor is covered with stones, with an inclination of approximately 30 sexagesimal degrees. Throughout the cavity the ceiling is barely visible, and at times it will be about 20 metres high. At the end the narrowing, of approximately 30 cm, makes progression impossible.

The water sinks in the doline and it seems that the cavity is the head of the underground water flow that ends up at Iribas; that is, it lies just on the watershed between the Cantabrian and the Mediterranean. At the bottom of the doline, where the two verticals join, the water appears and after a few metres disappears into a depression in the floor. Water also appears on the floor of the meander. At the end an air current is noticeable in an outside-to-inside direction.

From the point where one reaches the meander, taking to the left one advances a few metres along the upper part of the meander, along a ledge. To the right one descends a 7-metre vertical that leaves one on the floor of the meander, where the water appears. After two 6-metre downclimbs and passing some chambers one reaches the end of the cavity. At that point some climbs can be made that solve nothing, since the narrowing remains the same.

It is a very interesting cavity. Close to the watershed.