Loubens And The Deepest Pot-hole

by E. E. Roberts

the tragic death of Marcel Loubens, a noted French pot-holer, in the gigantic Gouffre de la Pierre St Martin (on the Pyrenees border) which turns out to be deeper than anything in Italy, has excited much attention. The curious failures of elaborate equip­ment, the feats of ladder climbing, and the courage and endurance shown, deserve our notice.

Loubens was the first to try the great Henne Morte Pot in 1940, and in 1947 he was Casteret’s companion in its lowest channel, 1,463 feet down. It is astonishing that a man of his experience of accidents should not have inspected the clamp on the loop of the wire cable which came loose and dropped him 30 ft. The wire did not break, as is still being repeated.

The Times articles and the book Gouffre de la Pierre St Martin by Tazieff, who saw him fall, make clear that there was only one bolt. The loop replacing it had several clamps and bolts. One paper had a dubious diagram showing a screw through the two bits of cable. One comments that the cable, 5 m.m. (1/5 in.) thick, contained a plastic-covered telephone wire. The loop, etc. was under an aluminium hood.

The narrow opening to the great shaft, in a shake-hole, high and very remote in the Pyrenees, was found in 1950. The well-known Belgian explorer, Cosyns, led an expedition to it in 1951. The discoverer and another went down and up in turn on a wire rope worked by a pedal-driven winch, evidently geared. Each touched a 40°slope at 1,135 ft and stopped at 1,168 ft., reaching the site of future camps in a vast hall at 1,247 ft.

On the following day Tazieff and Loubens were lowered and at midnight discovered a second huge hall into which Loubens descended by too short a ladder, he was away two and a half hours. His return was from 1,617 ft. (505 m.), beating the then French record of 1,463 ft. in the Henne Morte. Work on the winch was most fatiguing, with trips of two hours the party was too exhausted, after raising the two men, to do more.

Heavy expenses were incurred to improve equipment in 1952, to be met as far as possible by sales. Hence is explained the great anxiety to secure photographs. Tazieff, a complete novice, was brought in specially to make films.

The pedalled winch was replaced by a design by Cosyns, electrically driven, the main part weighing 286 lbs. This was carried on a horse with the greatest difficulty to its remote site. There is a clear statement that there were handles for two men, but there is no mention of a brake. Time of run was one and a half to two hours.

After days of preparation Loubens fixed a wheel or roller, ” diabolo ” on the edge of a ledge, 20 ft. by 6 ft., 260 ft. down. The winch shied both up and down. Next day Tazieff was ready at 1 p.m. to follow Loubens right down when the winch went wrong and he did not start till 10 p.m. It reads as if the drum had seized.

In the next two days the first hall was thoroughly explored, more stuff lowered, and Labeyrie and OccHalini added to the party. On the fourth day the vast second hall was visited, three men carrying each nearly 40 lbs. of fluorescein, and Tazieff 44 lbs. of photographic material. He and Loubens had agreed that they lived in an epoch when every discovery, every adventure above ordinary, ought to be registered on the film.

The fluorescein having been dumped in the stream, a long search revealed a fairly easy way past the syphon into a colossal third hall, then back to camp for a fourth night.

Loubens had a long wait for winch repairs, then started up at ten in the morning. The loop gave way at 30 ft. clear, down the 40° slope of rocks he rolled 100 ft. and was smashed up terribly. Thirty-six hours later he died just as his friends were about to raise his battered body.

Hours went by repairing the loop, obtaining a stretcher and altering it as far as possible, and a terrific storm raged during the night. For fifteen hours the telephone was not working. The gallant Dr. Mairey, who had been through another terrible dis­aster, reached his patient at 10 a.m. on the sixth day. During this day an almost incredible feat of ladder work was done, no doubt with narrow wire and metal ladders. Five Lyons men put 800 ft. of ladder down, two men on the 260 ft. ledge, one somehow fixed at 400 ft., another at 600 ft., and a fifth at nearly 800 ft. (240 m.). Their dangerous duty was to ease the raising of the stretcher. Loubens died after 10 p.m. and they withdrew during the sixth night, the last man reaching the surface at 4 a.m. To this astounding feat of courage and skill we pay humble homage.

The names ought to be known. The men deserve the Legion of Honour.

The seventh day Loubens was buried below ground, and on the next two men were worked up. On the ninth Tazieff and Mairey, between six and four, had the grit to go down aided by drugs into the enormous third hall, alongside a big river, and into a big continuing tunnel, turning back at over 600 metres (1,968 ft.).

Tazieff ought to have been out in daylight, but the windlass went seriously wrong. For 2 hrs. 20 mins. he hung in spray with­out his waterproof overalls and was lucky to survive. He had been down eight full nights. Mairey could not be got out till next day, four nights below.

In 1953 Mairey, Casteret and Levi penetrated further down to 2,395 ft. A better winch was built and France now claims the deepest pot-hole. An English newspaper sent a special correspon­dent unfortunately inadequately briefed and with no sympathy for the work. He did not try to throw any light on the vital question of the winch. It is to be hoped someone, somewhere has done.

The drum and cogs ought to be strong enough to allow of hand-winding when the engine fails. There is some serious problem, as one recalls that in the Henne Morte Casteret’s party were held up seven hours at a 300 ft. haul by the friction of a winch and the exhaustion of the winding party. Yet it had been put in by the Regular Army and organised by the Speleo Club de Paris which had had previous experience.