Ice Diving

-Ice diving brings totally new views in an icy water and you probably get quite hot from the thrill you enjoy.

Diving in a Tyrol lake in the winter is ice diving in an Austrian lakes at its best, a real dive adventure.

Similar to cave dives or wreck diving, ice diving is really addictive. Among the many lakes of Tyrol is the Blindsee at 1100 meters above sea level. There are tree trunks in the lake and the visibility under the lakes ice cover is up to about 50 meters, a ideal situation for diving under ice.

The underwater ice world looks gigantic, just as the landscape surrounding the lake. The fluffy powder snow lies thick on the pines and it gives the impression of a winter wonderland of a fairy tale.

The bizarre world of dives into ice is best experienced by the ice diving pictures. The entrance for scuba diving into the underwater ice world is a hole in the ice surface opened with the chain saw, now gliding down into a different water world which has not much in common with the world above the surface.

A slip into the icy water opens different impressions, until about one meter under the ice surface dead trees are floating. At an ice dive in the lake the view upward mainly counts for the thrill you experience.

The exhaled air under the ice accumulates and looks like liquid metal. A milky mist is all what remains visible of the scenery above. A ideal ice diving scenario is when the ice is free of snow while the sun rays penetrate through the ice forming magic light pattern its fascination at every scuba diving trip into the icy water.

A good ice dive team is needed for ice scuba diving without problems, someone is above the ice surface and controls the ropes the divers are connected to. That’s the umbilical cord to the exit of the icy world.

Ice scuba diving needs some special dive equipment and careful planning. Each ice scuba diver must have two separated ice diving regulator certified for ice diving. Dry suits are mandatory and the hole in the ice must be secured so that others cant fall in.

Diving under the ice surface is like to be in a soundless galaxy, only the breath sounds are around. The ice scuba diver wont get further off than about 50 meters from the entrance hole and about forty-five minutes ice dive should be enough. 

Even the best scuba diving suit keeps barely warm and the lips are exposed to the biting cold.

The icy lake appears totally empty of fishes; no trace of activity is visible. But fishes are there, usually near the 

Ice Diving at Tyrol Austria

bottom, where the lake water has its warmest temperature. While most substances shrink when cooled, water stretches, that’s the reason why ice floats, and icy lakes are getting warmer with increased depth.

At the bottom the dive computer shows around 4 degrees Celsius - at this temperature, water has achieved its highest density and sinks to the ground.

In the icy water fishes are hiding around dead trees, dig into the mud or float semi-unconscious through the water. Most fish fall into a kind of trance, driving down all bodily functions and live on the reserves that they have accumulated in the summer.

Anyway, 45 minutes is enough for a great ice diving, lets go and have some hot wine. In general do ice diving only within a experienced ice dive team and ice dive training wont hurt either.

There are ice diving classes and ice diving courses. Enjoy the ice diving photos and ice diving pictures, they are from the ice diving specialists from Tyrol in Austria.