France Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30
The descent
The entrance, at 2,209 m.
The real relief above Gouffre Jean-Bernard, 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.
2,209m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
421m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 0 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 15 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -6°-14°Jan
- -5°-14°Feb
- -2°-10°Mar
- 4°-5°Apr
- 9°-1°May
- 13°3°Jun
- 15°5°Jul
- 15°4°Aug
- 11°1°Sep
- 7°-3°Oct
- 0°-8°Nov
- -4°-12°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 Jean-Bernard is a cave in France. The entrance is at 2,209 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Samoënsnearest town · 5.8 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 2.6 km from the entrance
- Geneva International Airport (GVA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 55 km in a straight lineCar hire at GVA airport (Geneva)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.
- 47other cave entrances within 3 kmGouffre Jean-Bernard (entrée V4), Gouffre Jean-Bernard (entrée V4bis), Gouffre Mirolda and 44 more
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 35marked hiking routes within 3 kmTour des Dents Blanches and 34 more
- 1climbing crags within 3 kmDalle du Tuet
- 6campsites within 8 kmCamping-Car Park Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, Point accueil jeune du Pont de Sales, Le Giffre and 3 more
- 68hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmBeau Séjour, Les Mines d'Or, Refuge de Bonavau and 65 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 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
- Samoëns5.8 km in a straight line
- Champéry9.7 km in a straight line
- Morzine11 km in a straight line
- Les Gets12 km in a straight line
- Arâches-la-Frasse14 km in a straight line
- Taninges16 km in a straight line
- Magland16 km in a straight line
- Troistorrents17 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Gouffre Jean-Bernard.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas74 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 | -6 | -5 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 0 | -4 |
| Afternoon | -6 | -5 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 0 | -4 |
| Night | -14 | -14 | -10 | -5 | -1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | -3 | -8 | -12 |
| Rain (mm) | 107 | 77 | 94 | 74 | 117 | 105 | 103 | 105 | 76 | 86 | 94 | 110 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.3 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.3 | 6.6 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 6.9 | 5.0 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 49 | 62 | 46 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 29 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -6 | -6 | -14 | 107 | 3.3 |
| Feb | -5 | -5 | -14 | 77 | 4.5 |
| Mar | -2 | -2 | -10 | 94 | 5.5 |
| Apr | 4 | 4 | -5 | 74 | 6.3 |
| May | 9 | 9 | -1 | 117 | 6.6 |
| Jun | 13 | 13 | 3 | 105 | 8.5 |
| Jul | 15 | 15 | 5 | 103 | 8.8 |
| Aug | 15 | 15 | 4 | 105 | 7.9 |
| Sep | 11 | 11 | 1 | 76 | 6.9 |
| Oct | 7 | 7 | -3 | 86 | 5.0 |
| Nov | 0 | 0 | -8 | 94 | 3.1 |
| Dec | -4 | -4 | -12 | 110 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (2,209 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | 54% | 206% | 105% | 67% | 97% | 145% | 50% | 116% | 136% | 209% | 24% | 70% |
| 2021 | 146% | 67% | 73% | 63% | 124% | 103% | 147% | 64% | 93% | 62% | 59% | 162% |
| 2022 | 39% | 119% | 19% | 126% | 57% | 75% | 33% | 55% | 179% | 107% | 104% | 113% |
| 2023 | 72% | 8% | 186% | 138% | 76% | 101% | 68% | 101% | 87% | 167% | 272% | 194% |
| 2024 | 101% | 88% | 142% | 128% | 156% | 161% | 102% | 78% | 280% | 175% | 79% | 110% |
| 2025 | 124% | 39% | 41% | 141% | 88% | 92% | 102% | 91% | 175% | 157% | 106% | 28% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Gouffre Jean-Bernard
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,209 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Gouffre Mirolda
France · 3 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,893 mEntrance altitude
- 2 °CInside, all year
Grotte aux Fées
Switzerland · 21 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 531 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Saint-Léonard underground lake
Switzerland · 51 km
- 4 mDepth
- 0.3 kmGalleries
- 509 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2592438) · 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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