Hufre Berger

The world's first cave, explored to a depth of more than 1 km. From 1954 to 1963, it was considered the deepest cave in the world (in 1956, a depth of -1122 meters was reached), but in 1964 Pierre Saint-Martin gave up the primacy to the abyss. Today, Berger’s depth is 1323m ^[1] (with a total length of more than 30 km), which prevents even the 20 deepest caves of the world from entering, and leaves it only in fourth place in France.

Berger was repeatedly investigated by well-known speleologists, in particular Fernand Petzl .

It was opened in 1953 by Joseph Berger, who descended to a depth of −52 m. In the same year, a depth of −350 m was reached. In 1954, −903 m (Berger becomes the deepest in the world). 1955 −985 m. In 1956, a depth of −1122 meters was reached ^[2] . In 1967, Ken Perce, a metallurgy teacher from the UK , went down with the team and, given the immersion of 40 meters, reached a depth of −1133 meters. They came to the surface, having spent 13 days underground, setting a new world record then ^{[ clarify ]} . In 1968, B. Leger and J. Dubois reached a depth of −1141 meters. In July 1982, Patrick Penez descended to −1191 meters ^[3] . On October 13, 1990, Frédo Poggia penetrates the siphon and connects Berger to the neighboring Gouffre de la Fromagère cave , the depth of the system becomes −1271 m ^[4] . On February 21, 2010, a team led by Cedric Lashata opened the cave Gouffre de la Laitière Mutante , which, connecting with Berge, became the 9th entry into the system. Berger depth reached −1271 m ^[5] .

The cave is technically difficult. Returning from the bottom of the cave to the surface can take from 15 to 30 hours without long breaks. The cave is flood-prone. In recent years, 6 people died in Berger, five of them - due to sudden floods ^[6] .

• Berger - an article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
• History of studies of the cave and the scheme ( fr. ).
• The first −1000 of Speleology History ( Fr. ).
• Gufr Berger Cave Tour with photographer Robbie Sean ( Rus. ).