[5] Investigated by Eugène Fournier and Édouard-Alfred Martel at the end of the nineteenth century,[6] the massif became famous with the discovery in 1950 by Georges Lépineux, of the shaft that proved to be the first entrance to the réseau de La Pierre Saint-Martin.

It was descended by a team which included Jacques Labeyrie, Georges Lépineux, Marcel Loubens and Haroun Tazieff, during an expedition led by physicist Max Cosyns.

In 1952, a large-scale expedition, which also included Jacques Labeyrie and Haroun Tazieff, turned into a tragedy: a cable clamp failed on the winch being used, and Marcel Loubens fell 15 metres (49 ft) during his ascent.

In 1961, usng the EDF tunnel for access, a climb of 70 metres (230 ft) in the salle de la Verna led to the discovery of the Aranzadi gallery, the old course of the river, and a downstream extension.

The D9 or Gouffre de la Tête Sauvage at an altitude of 1,878 metres (6,161 ft) on the Arres d'Anie was connected to the base of the Lépineux shaft and became the upper entrance to the network.

This project also made it possible to open the salle de la Verna to the public, thanks to a layout designed and managed by the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departmental Committee of Speleology.

[13] With this connection, the combined Réseau de la Pierre Saint-Martin - Gouffre des Partages exceeded 82 kilometres (51 mi) long and 1,410 metres (4,630 ft) deep (the second longest cave in France, and the third deepest).

[15] In August 2021 the system was connected with Xendako Ziloa, and in January 2022 with Trou Huet, resulting in a network with over 87 kilometres (54 mi) of passages, and 14 natural entrances and one artificial.