France This picture belongs to Gilbert Bohec Please credit : Gilbert Bohec / Wikimedia Commons / · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,458 m.
The real relief above Gouffre Berger, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
1,458m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
5°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
185m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
5 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 5 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 20 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The wettest months are in November: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 0°-8°Jan
- 1°-8°Feb
- 6°-5°Mar
- 10°-1°Apr
- 14°3°May
- 18°7°Jun
- 20°9°Jul
- 20°8°Aug
- 16°4°Sep
- 12°1°Oct
- 5°-3°Nov
- 1°-6°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in France
Gouffre Berger is a abyss in France. The entrance is at 1,458 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Noyareynearest town · 3.6 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.8 km from the entrance
- Grenoble Alpes Isère Airport (GNB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 27 km in a straight lineCar hire at GNB airport (Grenoble)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 43other cave entrances within 3 kmScialet aux Écritures, Gouffre Berger, Scialet de la Fromagère and 40 more
- 3springs within 2 kmSornin, source
- 27viewpoints within 3 kmLa Buffe, La Sure, La Dent du Loup and 24 more
- 132marked hiking routes within 3 kmTour du Vercors à pied, Traversée de la ferme Durand, D'Ezy au tunnel du Mortier and 129 more
- 3climbing crags within 3 kmMur de Satan
- 2named waterfalls within 4 kmCascade des Lauses, Cascade supérieure
- 6car parks within 2 km
- 17information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 6campsites within 8 kmCamping Les 4 Montagnes, Camping Le Vercors, Les 3 Pucelles and 3 more
- 43hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmRefuge des Feneys, La Buffe, Maison Marie Barnier and 40 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Noyarey3.6 km in a straight line
- Sassenage4.6 km in a straight line
- Fontanil-Cornillon5.9 km in a straight line
- Veurey-Voroize6.0 km in a straight line
- Saint-Égrève6.2 km in a straight line
- Autrans6.8 km in a straight line
- Fontaine7.2 km in a straight line
- Seyssinet-Pariset8.4 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Gouffre Berger.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas13 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 1 |
| Afternoon | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 1 |
| Night | -8 | -8 | -5 | -1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 1 | -3 | -6 |
| Rain (mm) | 70 | 57 | 68 | 65 | 88 | 65 | 56 | 58 | 67 | 85 | 100 | 77 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.7 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 2.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 15 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0 | 0 | -8 | 70 | 2.7 |
| Feb | 1 | 1 | -8 | 57 | 4.0 |
| Mar | 6 | 6 | -5 | 68 | 5.8 |
| Apr | 10 | 10 | -1 | 65 | 6.9 |
| May | 14 | 14 | 3 | 88 | 7.4 |
| Jun | 18 | 18 | 7 | 65 | 9.4 |
| Jul | 20 | 20 | 9 | 56 | 9.8 |
| Aug | 20 | 20 | 8 | 58 | 8.6 |
| Sep | 16 | 16 | 4 | 67 | 7.0 |
| Oct | 12 | 12 | 1 | 85 | 4.7 |
| Nov | 5 | 5 | -3 | 100 | 2.9 |
| Dec | 1 | 1 | -6 | 77 | 2.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,458 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 52% | 90% | 97% | 68% | 90% | 151% | 28% | 119% | 117% | 142% | 35% | 163% |
| 2021 | 150% | 79% | 49% | 122% | 144% | 115% | 172% | 88% | 108% | 117% | 74% | 162% |
| 2022 | 37% | 71% | 30% | 85% | 36% | 101% | 19% | 79% | 160% | 53% | 145% | 154% |
| 2023 | 46% | 16% | 109% | 87% | 92% | 186% | 46% | 75% | 76% | 168% | 119% | 155% |
| 2024 | 108% | 104% | 199% | 104% | 157% | 159% | 104% | 48% | 193% | 141% | 44% | 104% |
| 2025 | 116% | 39% | 57% | 78% | 50% | 46% | 68% | 62% | 105% | 86% | 69% | 40% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Gouffre Berger
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,458 mEntrance altitude
- 5 °CInside, all year
Choranche cave
France · 23 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 725 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Caves of Thaïs
France · 33 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 170 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2663452) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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