When I was young I read about Antarctic expeditions and was mesmerized by the alien worlds found under the ice. As incredible as it looked, I never imagined seeing it for myself. I enjoy all types of diving and underwater environments, and ice diving was another unique and challenging realm to explore — one that required furthering my dive education and skills.
I’ve now dived under 6 feet (1.8 meters) of ice in Alaska’s Bering Sea to shoot TV shows for Discovery Channel and had the unique opportunity to dive inside a glacier. I’ve gone ice diving in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Svalbard, Antarctica, and many locations around the U.S., including New York and Michigan. I’ve learned a lot about ice diving, and it has humbled me in many ways, from drysuit floods to flash-frozen masks, regulator free-flows, and hung-up tethers.
I’ve had plastic gear break, including fin straps and BCD inflators, and have been where the air temperature was so low that we had to remove our gear in the water or risk it freezing to us. When I got out of the water, ice immediately formed over my drysuit zipper, and my dryglove system froze to the suit like something out of a science fiction movie. I could hear and feel my hood actively crystallizing and freezing to my head.
That’s an extreme example, but as serene as ice appears, it’s deceptively dangerous. So why ice dive? It’s quiet and peaceful, with frozen landscapes that may appear monochrome topside but feel like a completely different planet underwater, with brilliant blue tones and colorful marine life.
You can see fish with antifreeze in their blood and animals with polar gigantism, such as sea spiders 1 foot (0.3 m) long or giant isopods the size of your hand. There is also a chance to see penguins underwater near icebergs and several types of seals, including leopard seals. Icebergs are all different and constantly changing, so you’ll never dive the same one twice.
Diving in a frozen freshwater lake is just as adventurous. After sawing your way into the dive site, you can glide along the ceiling and study the way bubbles have frozen into the clear, smooth ice.
Whether diving around icebergs or in an overhead ice environment, you need the right equipment and preparation, including training and work-up dives before taking the icy plunge.
Equipment
Setting yourself up for successful ice dives means choosing the right gear. Equipment has improved over the past decade with advancements in thermal protection, including heated systems. Regulators, dive computers, and dryglove systems have also evolved, giving divers more choices and flexibility.
It used to be that the thicker your undergarment, the warmer it was, but heavier and bulkier undergarments compromised buoyancy and mobility. New fabrics and improved dive techniques offer better solutions. Recreational ice divers who don’t want the task loading of a heating system with an external battery pack can choose passive systems that use their body heat.
Layering is important. There are now base layers that can wick away moisture or sweat from your body, drysuit undergarments that are thinner and less buoyant while being warmer, and thermal vests that help keep your core temperature higher.
Divers wanting to spend more time ice diving can invest in a heated vest, heated gloves, a fully heated undergarment, or use all three. These systems require external battery packs (which have gotten smaller) and a special drysuit valve with an outlet to plug in the battery. Powered systems are great for extended dive times or multiple dives a day. Some downsides are the initial cost and the task loading of remembering to correctly plug in the battery.
Divers can lose a lot of heat through their head, hands, and feet, so keeping more than the core comfortable is essential. Warm socks are great, especially if standing on ice or a cold boat deck. A thick hood and warm dryglove liners help immensely. Thin silk or merino wool liners under my main gloves have made a huge difference. Dryglove ring systems come in different sizes and materials, and most allow divers to change the type of wrist seal or remove the dryglove rings for warmer water.
There are several choices for drysuit materials. Trilaminate is popular for ice diving because it dries quickly and is lightweight, flexible, and easy for travel. Make sure your drysuit has enough room for undergarments. Plastic zippers are more flexible and usually less prone to freezing, don’t require regular waxing like a metal zipper, and won’t fray. While we can replace neck and wrist seals, fix a hole, and change drygloves, zipper failures are one of the few things we can’t fix in the field. Checking zippers before an ice diving trip is important.
Preventing a regulator free-flow is critical, so choose regulators with diaphragm first stages that are environmentally sealed and tested for extremely cold water. Using DIN first stages is the best approach. Depending on the type of ice diving, you might need a free-flow contingency plan. With overhead ice you need to be able to isolate a free-flow and have a backup first and second stage, so use an H valve on a single tank or dive with doubles.
Carefully store your regulators for overnight breaks between ice dives. If you keep them outside and any moisture from drizzle or the previous day’s diving freezes inside the second stage, that can cause issues. Be meticulous about drying your regulators to help prevent free-flows underwater. Overusing your BCD inflator or breathing from the second stage before the dive when air temperatures are below freezing can cause a free-flow if moisture from your breath freezes inside the second stage.
Divers typically need heavy weight belts to compensate for the buoyancy of the drysuit and undergarments. An adjustable weight harness or a backplate and wing configuration are less bulky than a BCD, and divers can adjust them for thicker or thinner undergarments. If diving double tanks, you could put a V-weight between them if needed. A traditional BCD is acceptable, but be careful if it has too many plastic clips since they can get brittle and break in cold water.
After ice diving I recommend having a warm hat, a merino wool face buff to block wind, and another pair of gloves to put on if you remove your drygloves. Depending on where you’re diving and the facilities there, you could be in your drysuit for a while after getting out of the water. Hot tea in a thermos feels great for warming up after a dive.
Preparation
Whether doing a remote expedition or ice diving locally, test all your gear exactly how you will dive it. You can make changes before you leave, including having the right length drysuit hoses, ensuring your BCD or harness isn’t too snug with all your drysuit layers, and verifying that your drysuit is dry and your glove system isn’t leaking. Drysuit certification and proficiency is important.
Try to get your weighting as close as possible in a pool, quarry, or local dive site so you don’t need to figure it out in freezing water. If you’re using a heated system, do a few dives in it to develop muscle memory for what needs to be plugged in and where to place the battery pack. Practicing tasks such as clipping and unclipping your pressure gauge, using your dive computer, and deploying a surface marker buoy while wearing drygloves will be beneficial.
You’ll find a few things to fix on every work-up dive, but you’ll be more comfortable moving forward if you put the time in, ensuring a more enjoyable ice-diving adventure.
Safety
Even if you’re staying within recreational limits while ice diving, your equipment can malfunction at any time due to the harsh temperatures. Take your time gearing up, and be meticulous about your equipment. You will lose dexterity when your hands get cold, making problems more difficult to fix. If your drysuit or gloves flood, end the dive, remove the wet undergarments, and gradually warm yourself.
Environmental safety includes choosing the right kind of iceberg to dive. Rely on an experienced dive professional since icebergs constantly change. A grounded one is preferable because it is less prone to flipping. Icebergs that are flat on top and have no overhangs are less likely to have ice break off and fall on a diver or make the iceberg uneven, causing it to flip.
Diving around icebergs in salt water can wreak havoc on your buoyancy. A halocline will surround a melting iceberg. You will feel heavier and start to descend as you move closer and into the fresh water, and then you will be more positively buoyant as you move away.
Diving under ice on a frozen lake requires pulling gear on sleds and using chainsaws and handheld saws to cut a hole in the ice. Standing on the ice for a long time makes you colder. If you’re wearing your drysuit, stand on a rubber mat so your feet don’t get too cold before the dive. Diving under ice with one entry and exit point usually means the divers will be tethered to the surface so they can always find their way back along the line.
Air temperatures can range from –15°F to 30°F (–26°C to –1°C), and water temperatures in places such as Antarctica can be as low as 28°F (–2°C), depending on the time of year and location. These temperatures are tough on your dive gear and your body.
Long exposures in ice water are not good for extremities such as the hands, feet, and face and can cause tingling, pain, numbness, or even long-term nerve damage and sensitivity in those areas. Wearing proper exposure gear is critical.
Parting Thought
Ice diving is challenging, but the reward is worth it. Gaining and practicing valuable dive skills in a drysuit will make you a stronger diver in any environment. Nothing can replace time and experience. Having the right gear for ice diving and setting yourself up for success lets you be comfortable in the water and dive some of the most unique environments on the planet.
Few people ever experience these places, which provide sights whose magnificence far outweighs the effort it takes to get there. AD
Explore More
See more of Becky Kagan Schott’s ice diving experiences in these videos.
© Alert Diver – Q2 2025
