Top 5 Caves around Sant Salvador De Guardiola

Three large blocks in the middle of the Migdia stream make up a good "duplex" with dining room, bedroom for 4-5 people, garden and terrace with views of the Plecs del Llibre. One of the bivouacs with the most atmosphere given its privileged location and low attendance. On calm nights, the silence is so penetrating that the fall of a leaf already produces a noticeable noise. It is the ideal base for climbing the Plecs, the Cajoleta or the Montgròs. To get water, the nearest spring is that of La Cadireta, located below the Salamandra before overcoming the singular passage between rocks. The approach can be made both from Santa Cecília along the Coll del Migdia path, and from Can Jorba along the Camí dels Francesos (1.20 hours). It should be noted that if we do it from the N then we will have to climb again to the Col del Migdia, and if we do it from the S the return will be all downhill, with the incentive of going down the interesting ravine of the Joc de l Goose to round off the day.

Spacious balma that had been enabled as a refuge in Montserrat Despite the fact that in many maps and texts it appears as a balm, we prefer to mention it as a cave, which is what it is in reality and, moreover, this is how it appears on the map of the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia. It is a fairly spacious cave, it is 16 meters deep and 45 meters wide, inside there is a small wall of stones. Josep Fatjó tells us about this cavity, "it was fixed throughout the year 1959 and on the day of the inauguration the climbing monks said a mass". In the cave there was a wall in front of wood, bedrooms with two rows of wooden bunks and logs with a capacity for about 15-20 people, there was also a firewood store and a dining room with a fireplace, all made by members of the GAM of the Barcelonès Mountain Club. The unsightly people who roam the mountains with their lack of civility have dedicated themselves to burning everything and have reduced this emblematic place to a pile of ashes.

Cavity 23 meters long by 5 meters wide. It is formed under some rocks off the cliff, hence the toponym of the landslide. Inside there is a small perennial water cistern, built in 1947, and next to it there is a chest with a fountain, which although years ago we had seen in good condition, is currently unusable. All of this favored the climbers' stay. Known since time immemorial. Mentioned in all the collections of cavities and guides of Montserrat, but of little speleological interest.

Small fountain hidden inside a bauma.

On the northern slope of the Serrat del Cabrit, there is a deep torrent hidden in the shade of holm oaks: the Coma Alta. This torrent, usually dry, descends in a SW direction until it reaches a vertical jump of 50 meters. At the foot of this jump, we find the Cova de l'Arcada. Unlike the Salnitre, the Arcada is not underground and has a small entrance. It's just the opposite: open and shallow, but of colossal size. Its monumental arch is approximately 30 meters high by 60 meters wide and 10 meters deep. Canyoning enthusiasts can access it from above, through the Torrent de la Coma Alta, abseiling to the entrance of the cave.

It was located at the head of the torrent of the same name, under the rocks known as the viewpoint of Sant Joan, about fifty meters below the hermitage of Sant Joan, a little to the right of the ravine, facing south, at an altitude of 985 meters. For the construction, a wide balma was used, in which some parts of the walls are still standing, holes to point the beams, and, above all, the important pipes worked in the rock, of considerable depth and very well distributed for water conduction. Due to its excellent orientation towards the south and well sheltered, it had a reputation for sheltering many nests, especially nightingales and blackbirds, so much so that it was known by the Montserrat Birdhouse.

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