An Indian expedition to Slovenia

Slovenia before the expedition to India

We left with Rod from Tarascon-sur-Ariège early in the morning for Slovenia. That was where the preparatory meeting for the 2020 expedition to India was taking place. We were going to meet canyoners from all over the world. Adrien Paris is a renowned French videographer, who you may know, since he learned his trade at Spéléo Canyon Ariège. He was coming from Montenegro with Julien Fichot, a French canyon photographer, and Louis Rogissart, a Belgian instructor. All three had spent the summer season at Adriatrek Canyon and were driving back from the Balkans. Olda Stos, a leading canyoneer in Eastern Europe, originally from the Czech Republic, was joining us for the weekend from Brno. His partner Katka Hebka was supposed to be there but due to a medical problem she was unable to join us. One of Olda's teammates in the 2018 expedition to Chamjé Khola, the Italian Jari Triboldi, would also be there with his girlfriend Lia. They were coming from the Aosta Valley. A Slovenian canyon photographer would also come from the capital Ljubljana, it was Ziga Humar.

Yann Ouzoux, who participated in the Chamjé Khola 2011 expedition alongside Lionel and Rod, who worked in Ariège for a long time and is now president of the association Himalayan Canyon Team, will be live from Reunion, the island this time, to participate. But I admit that the one who interested us the most in the truck while crossing France in its length before attacking Italy, was Lionel Rias. Lionel, besides being an excellent caver, had worked for years with Rod in the Chassezac canyon and both had participated in the 2011 Chamjé Khola expedition, but above all, above all, Lionel had an apartment for the night in Kobarid, Slovenia, and that was worth all the gold in the world.

After 14 hours on the motorway, we met up with Lionel to spend the night. The next day, the three of us went for a tour of the Slovenian Alps around Bovec before meeting up with Adrien, Julien and Louis in Ljubljana. It was on Friday that we met the entire team, in a lodge near Bovec, for the first meeting concerning the 2020 expedition. The idea was to open the Khoksar canyon in India, in Himachal Pradesh, at the start of the Himalayas, after the famous Rohtang Pass, in the Spiti Valley. Opening a canyon is no small feat. You need information about the canyon itself, of course, its height difference, its configuration, but also about the surroundings, the weather conditions, everything. The meetings were a way to take stock of the information already collected, and about the team. Because going down a canyon where no one has been before is also a team effort. Everyone in the team has specific tasks, everyone has their role, and everyone is linked. Behind these names that have already done great things in the world of canyoning is a human being. Everyone is alone facing themselves in these extreme conditions and well, it's good when you face your fears to be well surrounded.

Various meetings took place during the stay. The team was formed; Rod, Olda, Jari, Lionel and Yann will ensure the technical aspect in the canyon, Adrien will be with them to film the adventure. On site, an external team will be present in case of need for intervention, with Julien and Katka. Locals like Monish Dave and Titli will help with the preparations. A helicopter was made available to the team. The roles of each person were distributed to prepare the expedition, the technical aspects were discussed, the planning and the organization on site, the logistics and the communication. Adrien and Julien presented their film project for the expedition. Adrien will be at the heart of the action to cover the event but his project is larger and more human than making a simple action film. A crowd founding will soon be opened by the way if you want to participate in the adventure!

To bond the team and to get to know each other in canyoning, it was a question of going to practice all together. The second day, we went to the Kozjak canyon. You should know that the Julian Alps, in Slovenia, are a magnificent place. The setting is superb, beautiful massifs stand imposingly around the Soca river, it is a superb playground for canyoning. Kozjak, not far from Kobarid, is a fairly short canyon, very steep, cut into the rock, rated V4A5II. The team met at the entrance to the canyon and everyone launched into this large fault. We only put a rope at the end, facing a waterfall about twenty meters high. Faced with each obstacle in the canyon, everyone jumped hop hop hop, it was not easy to follow! A waterfall? We jump. Another one? Same. As we left the canyon, we were asked to practice rope cutting near the river with its turquoise blue waters.

The next day, we went for a walk in the Predelica canyon, a little longer and more technical. It was a good opportunity to put into practice the techniques developed by Himalayan Canyon Team in their previous expeditions. The beginning of the canyon is superb, open to the peaks opposite, very mineral. We alternate between slides and abseils, then a long horizontal progression, and the last part ends with a beautiful 45m waterfall. It was interesting to see the techniques put in place by the team, to test the theory on the ground, to see what worked and what didn't.

After these few days spent in good company, we parted ways. Everyone went back to their own business, while waiting for the next meeting to finalize the preparations for this promising expedition! To be continued...

Caving bivouac at Bufo Fret

Two days underground in the Bufo Fret network

An expedition in preparation

Let's get back to the root of the matter; what is an expedition? According to Larousse, an expedition is, among other things; "A scientific trip to a remote or difficult country, or a more or less important or eventful tourist trip; men and equipment participating in this trip: Expedition to the South Pole."Of course, we didn't go to the South Pole, but as for the eventful part, why not. Bivouacking in the Bufo Fret network is no small feat. Olivier was the first to be motivated by the adventure, he took his son Baptiste and Benoît, a friend, with him. Sandrine also joined the project. At the last minute, Morgan saw the event on social media and without hesitating for a second came to complete the team. We had our motivated team, we just had to take care of the logistics. We had to gather the necessary equipment; suits, harnesses, helmets, lights, sleeping bags... And also food for two days underground. I was in charge of preparing food for the group and ensuring media coverage of the event, camera in hand. Rod went out several times to scout the terrain, he identified the key places and the location of the bivouac. We met in Bugarach on Saturday morning, 10am.

Together, we took care of packing the things. Sleeping bags, spare clothes, food, ropes and first aid kit. It's complicated to pack bags for an expedition like this. You can't forget anything but you need the minimum, because caving bags require special attention and management. You have to take the bags with you, and that's no easy task through the bowels of the Earth. Rod explained to us how to manage the bags, a sort of third arm for the caving expert. We managed to have an acceptable number of bags, with everything we needed inside. We set off for the entrance to the Bufo Fret network.

First day underground

A short approach walk put us right in the bath, the entrance to the cave was there. Head first we throw ourselves into the unknown. At first the excitement and the management of the bags dominate the activity. We arrive in "the lake of the elves", we splash around in the water, the rock gives us a few tastes of what nature underground can offer us but no elves. We eat a bite near the lake. It is time for the first rope climb. And yes, the originality of this network is to go back up into the mountain.

Climbing a rope is one thing, our team was well briefed by Rod, we save ourselves, there is no performance to follow, we have to master the technique in order to climb up without burning ourselves out completely at the start of the exploration of the network. But lifting the bags is another matter. A team member climbs, he is followed by a bag at the end of a rope mounted on the pulley. This passage finished, we attack the section called "Pearl Harbor". A little more technical, we have to slip into a narrower passage by passing the bags to each other. A great action! The team spirit is at its best, we laugh, we sweat, the bags are passed from one hand to another, we climb into the network and we arrive at the "Grand Balcon". From there, vacation! The bags are taken up to the "Galerie des Sables", where we will be bivouac, and we can set off again to explore the network.

Another short rope climb and we enter the "Spike Gallery". The atmosphere is superb, there are seven of us underground explorers, concretions everywhere are arranged like theatrical performances by Mother Nature, with each step we discover new shapes. It's quite big and to get our bearings Rod brought with him his tablet and a PDF version of the network topography that can be enlarged to 400%. Technology is beautiful!

We discover with amusement the names given to the different parts of the network, not always funny like "the brown plague" or more cheerful; "the boubou network". For the moment it would seem that we are in the "Gallery of the Intraterrestrials". We continue to advance, we go from fairly large rooms to narrower sections, we pay attention where we put our feet. Sometimes large faults dig the ground and we can't see the bottom. It's an adventure!

In the "Galerie des petits gris", we arrive at the big clay slide. Before going there, Rod tells us that he has not gone any further in his previous explorations of the cavity. He is, like us, facing the unknown and therefore facing discovery. Going up a clay slide is not the best idea you've ever had. Rod finds a passage, we slip through, we arrive in front of a rolling mill, a passage that can be wide but has a low ceiling, we are forced to move by crawling. We come out of there above the slide, bet won! We continue, intoxicated by the discovery and the unknown.

Using the tablet, we can tell that we are making this big 360° turn, for now it's going well, everyone is smiling, everyone wants to continue. But after a few moments we find ourselves facing a crevasse where we are moving in opposition, with a little gas under our feet and it seems that we can't go very far without exposing ourselves dangerously. Rod decides to turn around, explaining to us that it is the lot of speleologists to have to give up without having seen the bottom. It is rare to see the bottom. So we go the other way, we go up or down ropes, we arrive at the bivouac. The notion of time has completely disappeared in our team.

At the bivouac, it's a question of setting up a place marked out before by Rod for the pee area, taking off the wetsuits to put on dry clothes, preparing the meal. On a tarpaulin we spread a nice tablecloth, we lay out the food. The sausage, the liver sausage, the Provençal marinated anchovies, a few radishes, cherry tomatoes, olives, a goat's cheese and a cow-sheep toudeille, the leek and potato soup, my grandmother's recipe, heats up on a stove. We eat with good appetite, everyone is smiling but fatigue is present. We have trekked eight hours in the network and when the soup arrives it is appreciated by all. A small glass of Gaillac to get the most valiant back on their feet, we laugh around the table, we recover from a great day exploring. We set up camp, a collective tent is moored in the middle of the beautiful "sand gallery", all our explorers settle in except Baptiste who is determined to face the night underground alone, but still right next to the others.

Second day underground

The night was marked by sporadic unidentified snoring, maybe the cave bear? We didn't wake up early, we had coffee and breakfast, then we tidied up the camp, repacked everything in the bags that had become lighter. The goal is to leave no trace of our passage so as not to disturb the underground world. Before leaving the "Sand Gallery", we will push a little into this gallery, to see what is further.

We pass through a rolling mill and arrive in a beautiful little room where the rock takes on unsuspected shapes. Further on, the rolling mill is too narrow for us to venture inside. We turn around and return to our bivouac. Once the reconditioning exercise is done, we can lower the bags at the crossroads between the return path and the ropes to climb up to the "Galerie des piques" from where we push on to the "Galerie blanche".

What is superb in the Bufo Fret network is that each gallery has a very particular style, the landscape is never the same and we constantly discover the different cave landscapes. The white gallery, almost unknown to Rod, is quite narrow, uneven, beautiful finely chiseled concretions extend into the rock, the atmosphere is more electric. We go up, we pass in opposition some places and then we find ourselves at the well.

It's hard to go any further, so we turn around. We find our bags and the location is ideal for a picnic lunch. All we have to do is cross "Pearl Harbor" again, the memory of which remains vivid in our minds. Strangely enough, the descent was very quick and without much difficulty. We found the lake again after rappelling down what we had climbed the day before with a rope. We found the exit under a bright sun, the beach under our bags and we went back down to the car to change, put away our gear, drink a beer and smile and chat about this outing.

An expedition like this does not leave you indifferent. The notion of time escapes, telephones no longer exist, the link with the outside world is completely cut, we are in a hostile and foreign world, far from home. We face ourselves, our fears and our desires but we are well surrounded. It is a beautiful experience and an intense piece of life. With the right team, it is a shared pleasure! If you like adventure and discovery, do not hesitate to inquire about our next bivouac expeditions!

Text, photo credit, drawing and video: Arthur Serres

An expedition to the Canyon d’Estat

The Estat canyon, quite an adventure!

The canyon d’Estat is the most beautiful and largest in the Vicdessos valley. Over the course of a day, the expedition takes place at the foot of the 3000 Arièges. The already sporty approach walk takes us below the Pic d’Estat, 3144 meters above sea level all the same. A beautiful hike to start the day as an introduction before starting the descent itself. Opposite the Pic Rouge de Bassiès, overlooking the Artigue canyon, the Estat canyon is cut out of red schist between a high mountain landscape and abseiling.

Now this is a first in this summer of 2018, we are setting up an expedition! The late snowmelt offers us exceptional aquatic conditions for this unique adventure. This sporty descent requires a combination of endurance and technique. In this canyon, everyone has their role to play, everyone participates in the advancement of the group.

So if you are initiated in abseiling, if you want to deepen your knowledge of canyoning, if you have team spirit, if you want to escape, if at night you dream of canyoning in the high mountains, if you want to cool off, join the Estat team on Tuesday August 7, 2018!