Gouffre Berger

The Gouffre Berger is a cave in the French alps within the commune of Engins high on the Vercors Plateau. It was discovered on 24 May 1953 by Joseph Berger, Georges Bouvet, Ruiz de Arcaute and Marc Jouffrey. From 1953 to 1963, it was regarded as the deepest cave in the world at −1,122 metres (−3, 681 ft), relinquishing this title to the previous contender, Pierre Saint Martin, in 1964, after further exploration. The Gouffre Berger, the first -1000, is now ranked 41th deepest cave in the world, and the 4th in France. To return from the bottom of the cave back to the surface can take between 15 and 30 hours, without long breaks. In 1967, Ken Pearce, a metallurgy lecturer from Britain, descended with the Pegasus Caving Club team from Nottingham UK, organised and led by Peter Watkinson, and along with a 40-metre (130 ft) dive, reached a depth of −1,133 metres (−3, 717 ft). They emerged after 13 days underground, having set a new world record at the time. In 1968, B Leger and J Dubois reached a depth of −1,141 metres (−3, 743 ft). This record was held until July 1982, when Patrick Penez attained −1,191 metres (−3, 907 ft). In 1990, a breakthrough was made, connecting the cave to the nearby "Scialet de la Fromagère". This gives the current recorded depth as −1,271 metres (−4, 170 ft) In June 2011 the terminal sumps were dived and in 2014 another attempt was made to pass the sumps. In re

Cave data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).