February 26, 2017 - The Last Ice
So a couple of Days ago you may have enjoyed the photo story "Icing on the Cake" about my first impressions of diving beneath the ice in the Austrian Alps.
I definitely loved the experience, so I met up with Wolfgang again yesterday and we went to the much closer Neufelder See to get some seconds.
At 223 metres above sea level, diving at the 'Neufelder See' is not considered 'Altitude Diving' anymore. Also the formation of Ice is also not a regular occurrence every year here, but requires particularly cold winters. This was the case this year, whilst snow coverage was not for most of the season, allowing for ice skaters and diving beneath relatively clear ice.
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
The spring season is fast approaching which means that the ice is melting fast. Wolfgang was here last weekend also and found the ice to have a thickness of 10 centimetres then. Now there were maybe 3cm at the thicker parts. Definitely not safe to walk on anymore.
Note the safety tether I talked about last time, missing here; Sufficient safety precautions come in various shapes and colours and always need to be made when ice diving.
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
Right beneath the ice I noticed that there is a significant difference between ice diving beneath a surface covered in snow and one without. It's bright down there; real bright. When the sun comes out, like it did yesterday, the aquamarine colour tone of the water is intensely amplified.
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
The drag beneath the surface is quite noticeable. During the ice diving course you learn that any attempt to break ice beyond a certain thickness (and it doesn't have to be much) from below, would be a futile attempt.
After about 4-6 Bruce Lee style 'One Inch Punches' (truthfully it was more of a "6 inch - oh boy, I can't build up any momentum in the water - bumps"), I actually did manage to break through at a part where the ice was thinner. On a third attempt at this, later in the dive, the ice won.
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
After my experience at the Erlaufsee, I thought I was in love with ice diving and now I know it for a fact! The ice is almost gone in my closer vicinity (at least until next year), so I'm getting a hunch I'll be returning here pretty soon....
Photograph by © Wolfgang Rotschek - www.letsdive.at
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