Scialet de Jouffles

This cave was recommended to us by Regies Picavet of Pot Deux fame. It’s about 45 minutes walk from the Col de Liorin, or from the Bois Barbu ski centre. The cave is close to the cross-country ski piste, and in summer you can drive to within 50m of it. We only descended the first three pitches, as our children are still learning SRT, the fourth looks very nice but the cave below that is apparently pretty unpleasant. There are no P hangers, many of the spits were old, but we found good natural anchors in several places.

The entrance pitch is 12m and needs a rope of at least 20m plus a sling and several hangers. In winter a rope of 40m allows for a traverse line across the depression so you access the cave without fear of falling down it.

A crawl of a few meters leads to a pitch of 3m, we used one hanger and two naturals. A 40m rope reached from here to the bottom of the third pitch. At the foot of the 3m pitch a narrow rift winds downwards, over some holes. They would be difficult to fall down but the 40m rope makes a useful hand line. Next comes a 10m pitch with a constricted pitch head that soon opens out. A hanger and two 120cm slings can be used around a natural anchor. At the foot of this pitch is a well decorated chamber that is fun to explore. From this chamber a 26m pitch drops straight to another chamber below, but we turned back at this point.

A survey of the cave is available here: https://ipvsmn.org/default.aspx?moid=7010

Here is a link to a GPX trace from the house “Concourdan” (great place to stay if you are caving in the Vercors), via the Col de Liorin to the cave. In winter be sure to wear snowshoes so you don’t damage the cross-country ski piste. GPX Trace.