Subterranean Climbers

The Dent de Crolles in southeastern France is one of the greatest cave networks in the world. Chevalier and his companions spent twelve years, 1935-47, unraveling its mysteries foot by foot and establishing a record depth of 2159 feet. This enthralling account of their labors and the final triumphant linking of the Glaz and the Guiers-Mort caves is one of the classic sport and science adventures of the century. These underground mountain climbers devoted all they had of leisure, money, and the meager resources of occupied France. Unsponsored, ill-fed, dependent on their own ingenuity and courage, some of them fighting as partisans against the Nazis at the same time, they broke world depth records and added important chapters to the history of both cave exploration and hydro-geological research. This new edition brings Chevalier's accounts to a new generation of readers, and contains a new introduction by the author who puts the exploit in a present-day context.