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CAVING IN BELGIUM: THE BELGIAN CAVE GUIDE
Chantoir du ROUGE-THIERS - Louveign?
(No. 22)
LOCATION:
Province: LIEGE
Locality: Louveign?br>
Coordinates: X=246,83 Y=134,62 Z=230
Map: 49/3-4
Two kilometres S-E of Adseux, near the entrance of the local Camping, a
small river (Griry) disappears into a big sinkhole. It is situated
just besides the swimming pool of the camping.
HISTORY:
The cave was already mentioned in a book in 1899 by Rahir. Around
1967 a new part was found, after the terminal sump of the cave. No
important discoveries have been made since then. In the 1990-ties
several weekends of digging were necessary to remove tons of debris and
sediment that completely filled up the lower levels of the cave, as a result
of heavy floods.
ACCESS:
One must take care not to disturb the people on the camping. Please
park your car out of sight! The way to the cave has been marked
with arrows by the U.B.S. Follow the river bank, do not walk over
the grass besides the swimming pool.
DESCRIPTION:
Length: 440 m, Depth: 65 m
Only a few metres in the cave, you must decide which part of the cave you
want to visit!
- Straight on: after 30 m. the roof lowers and
you must pass a narrow crawl (sometimes very wet!) that leads to a very
big gallery. This gallery (section 5x10m) descends rather steeply.
At -55m you arrive in a room (Salle de la Cascade) where the cave makes
a sudden turn South. In this room, several rivers join up
and finally disappear into a sump. In extremely dry conditions,
this sump can be passed. Another 125m of gallery can then be visited
until a second sump which has never been passed.
- First gallery on the left: this way you enter a very
sporting series of deep rifts, very spectacular in wet conditions.
You first meet a 5 metre high waterfall that you must traverse high
in the roof for at least 10 m. until you can step off .
The next pitch, also about 5 m. deep, can easily be shunted via a lateral
passage. You then arrive in a high gallery. Near the end
of it, there are two different ways that both lead to the big, main
gallery and join it at -30 and -45 m, allowing a "through-trip" from
one entrance of the cave to the other.. The first way is
at the left through a series of small rifts where the water can sometimes
be very deep. The second way is at the right, first through
a low, wet passage and then by climbing about 15 metres higher.
But, it is very well possible that both passages are blocked by sediment,
despite a lot of work some years ago to clear them again.
RIGGING:
- First P5: 15 m of rope. You can traverse it or go straight down.
- Second P5: can be shunted
COMMENT:
This cave is very spectacular in wet conditions, but don't take any risks:
if the weather is too bad, don't enter the cave! It can flood totally.
SURVEY: Click
here to see the survey
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