Читать книгу Canyoning in the Alps. Graded routes in Northern Italy and Ticino, Austria, Slovenia and the Valais Alps онлайн

14 страница из 80

De Joly clad ready for the Imbut (photo from Memoirs of a Speleologist, Robert de Joly (1975))

Several of the men gave up on the third day, tired and demoralised. The remainder of the team, which included Martel and Janet, arrived exhausted at the ‘Pas de Galetas’ on the fourth day, successfully completing the first descent of the gorge. Only the semi-subterranean passage of the Imbut remained unexplored. Here, for 150m, the raging Verdon waters burrow through the base of the limestone cliffs rather than take a surface route. The passage was dismissed by Martel as too risky a venture; he opted instead to carry boats and equipment along the dry river bed. It was another 23 years before Robert de Joly, Martel’s friend and disciple, returned to investigate.

Wearing a flotation jacket and lead weights around his ankles to keep him upright, he took to the water:

I entered the water and was carried along swiftly. Before long I was in a calm, level passage, surrounded and boxed in on all sides by the mountain. The roof was at least 36 feet high, and the channel width varied from two to five yards.